Whatever It Takes (collection of oneshots)
by rayrae118
Summary: If you've read the one shots, these will look familiar. Just compiling them into one story so that you can easily find them all and read in order! *Summary: Endgame fix-it. Six stones. five stops. One opportunity. Steve never expected it, he would never have asked for it, but now that he's been given it? Yeah, he's not going to let this one go.
1. Don't You Cry No More

**If you've read this one shot already, there's nothing new. I'm just compiling all the one shots in this little series so that they're easy to find if and when I post more! **

**Title: Don't You Cry No More**

**Summary: Six stones. Five stops. ****One opportunity. Steve never expected it, he would never have asked for it, but now that he's been given it? Yeah, he's not going to let this one go.**

Too loud.

The thing about the super soldier serum was that people always seemed to assume all it did was enhance strength and endurance.

Too loud.

Erskine had burned all of his formulas and notes the night before they had put Steve Rogers in the chamber, dosed him up on steroids, and let Captain America walk out. Premonition, perhaps. A gut feeling. Either way, he had made it impossible for anyone to recreate the formula without him – not such a bad idea, considering what had come next.

Too loud.

It wasn't just strength. Steve had always been smart. The serum made him a tactical genius. Steve had always had good vision. The serum made it better. And Steve had once been partially deaf in one ear, the result of a bad bout of meningitis when he was a child. Now, he could hear everything.

_Too loud_.

It wasn't just hearing someone talking to him without having to turn his head to the left to make sure he caught every word. Marveling at the sound of birds chirping in the springtime.

_Too loud_.

It was the rustle of someone's coat from fifty feet away. The individual conversations he had no business being part of. Morgan Stark crying in her bedroom, the sounds muffled by her Iron Man patterned comforter. Peter Parker having a whispered conversation with himself behind a tree on the other side of the house. Apparently, he was trying to convince himself that there really was nothing he could have done to change anything.

_Too _–

Steve came back to himself with a shudder as the light sound of footsteps rustled softly over the grass by the lake, coming closer. He knew without turning that Bucky had found him.

The nervous breathing from ten feet behind the former assassin told Steve that Sam was watching.

"Tony sure knew how to pick a retirement spot," Steve murmured softly, voice barely a whisper as he kept his gaze focused on the lake in front of them.

Bucky stopped a few feet away and studied the same view Steve had been contemplating for the last half hour – ever since the funeral had ended and most of the guests wandered inside to break out the good scotch. Not that there was really any other kind of scotch when it came to Tony Stark. Steve would put good money on every bottle of liquor in their cabinet costing a minimum of a hundred bucks. Tony and Pepper may have donated heavy amounts of their fortune to help people affected by the decimation, but they still had a decent chunk left.

"Not bad," Bucky agreed, the words sounding unusually loud against the quiet lapping of the water at their feet.

Steve winced, and Bucky threw him a knowing look. He was probably one of the only people still alive who understood just what the serum had done. He had seen Steve in one of their first fire fights after the Commandos were formed, overwhelmed by the noise, the clarity, all the enhanced senses. It hadn't been Steve's first fight by that point – Azzano had been several weeks earlier – but it was overwhelming in a way that that prison rescue never would be. Muzzle flashes, men yelling in German and English, screaming from villagers and the wounded and dying soldiers.

Bucky may have spent most of the last eighty years in and out of cryo, mind wiped more times than he could count, but he knew Steve. "On me," he instructed sternly. Steve jerked slightly, and finally turned to look at his friend. Bucky offered up a small smile. "Focus on me, Steve. One voice. One sound. It's just me."

It had taken a lot of trial and error, but eventually Bucky had been able to help Steve deal with the enhanced senses. By focusing on just one sound, he could drown out all the others – or at least make them manageable.

Steve grimaced, but let Bucky continue, voice still just as soft and calming. It didn't matter what the man was saying, just that he didn't stop talking. After a few minutes, Bucky saw the tense lines in his super soldier best friend's shoulders smooth out. The tightness around his mouth lessened. Something in his eyes loosened.

Bucky smiled. "Better?"

Steve nodded wearily. "Thanks."

Bucky shrugged. "How's your head?"

Steve didn't really think they were headaches, but when the world got this overwhelming, he could feel something like phantom migraines pulsing in his skull. "Five," he replied, knowing Bucky wanted an answer. "But it was a nine ten minutes ago, so definite improvement."

Bucky grimaced, wishing he could do more. The two lapsed into silence once more.

The last few days had been a blur, even for Steve with his better than average memory. The final battle, Thanos and his army gone, but so was Tony. So was Natasha. So many others. Steve hadn't met all of them before, but they had answered the call just the same, come to join the fight in what used to be a pretty nice compound in upstate New York. Earth's last stand. The Universe's last chance.

And against all odds, they had won. Because of Tony.

Steve still couldn't believe Tony was gone. It had been tense between the two of them for a while, but with half the universe just… gone, things like old grudges just didn't seem that important. They had talked, cleared the air – not without serious effort and a lot of Pepper and Natasha forcing them not to storm away angrily if they didn't like what the other was saying. There was a lot of baggage to unload. Their split over the Sokovia Accords – though Tony could admit that he had probably been in the wrong there. Presenting the team with this huge document and then giving them only three days to sign or retire? Not allowing them any input or ability to make changes before it became law, and just hoping that they could alter things from the inside once they signed? Especially considering what was written in that document. Regulation and oversight was not necessarily a bad thing, as long as they could trust the authority not to abuse the power - and once he had calmed down and really thought about Steve's objections, Tony knew that the number of people who could be trusted to oversee a group like the Avengers was incredibly limited. And that was just one of the many issues Steve had brought up now that they were all calmer and in a better state to actually discuss their fallout. An inhuman registry was probably taking the whole thing a step too far.

_I once knew a man who thought people need to be registered and tracked. He convinced people that one specific subgroup of the population was to blame for all their troubles. Convinced them that they needed to keep an eye on these people, make them easily identifiable, then it was keep them contained and away from their betters. You know what happened? Six million people died, Tony. Because they were Jewish. Because they were gay, Roma, of African descent. And it starts with a document just like the Accords. Identify an enemy the majority can blame, convince people you can keep them safe, and then take away the rights of millions of people just because they're different._

Steve could still remember Tony's response. _They're dangerous, Cap. How many enhanced have we come across who have killed people, or put people at risk with their powers? Most people don't have a way to fight against that. Just look at the damage we caused._

Steve knew the look on his face was pure 'disappointed Cap', as Clint had once told him (apparently, he had a look that just made people want to apologize for all the wrongs of their ancestors, whatever that meant). _You're punishing them for a crime they haven't committed yet. A crime they may never commit. Punish the people who have broken the law. Help governments set up teams of law enforcement that specialize in taking down enhanced criminals. But tracking and surveilling law abiding citizens for no reason other than they can do things you can't is a step our world can never recover from. _Steve's expression grew contemplative then. _We caused our share of destruction, Tony, I won't deny that. But what happens if we sign this document, and there's another crisis - and we can't deal with it because the UN is still debating whether or not we should be called? How many people might die because we're waiting on a group of independent countries to decide whether it's worth it for us to get involved? What if the request for our aid is denied because the crisis is in Russia, but other countries want Russia destabilized, so they vote no? What happens if we're given an order that we don't agree with?_ Steve grimaced. _What if the first order they give is to hunt down and subdue Bruce for the destruction he caused all those years ago - and we can't say no because we signed the Accords._

Tony had to concede the point, but he refused to take all the blame for what had happened between the two of them. _You should have told me, Steve. He killed my parents_.

Steve knew he had screwed up on that. There hadn't really been any time to talk it out after their fight, with Steve breaking the others out of the Raft and then going on the run. But now that Pepper and Natasha had locked them in a room and made FRIDAY refuse to open the door until they "figured their shit out" according to Natasha, there was nothing to do but talk.

_I didn't know for sure_, he finally admitted, to Tony's shock. When they had come to that bunker in Siberia, when he had confronted them with the truth about his parents' murder, Steve had never denied knowing. He had just accepted Tony's recriminations, and in Tony's mind, that meant he had been right. _I suspected. All I really had to go on was a flash of a news article about the accident when Zola's computer memory was telling me and Nat about the Winter Soldier._ They had made sure to share the whole story of SHIELD's demise with the other Avengers as soon as possible after Steve had gotten out of the hospital. _I didn't want to say anything unless I had more proof than that. I didn't want to bring up old wounds for nothing more than suspicion. But I should have, Tony. I'm sorry._ Steve remembered letting out a long sigh and slumping gracefully into a chair, head resting in his hands as he found himself unable to meet his friend's suddenly concerned gaze. _If it had been anyone else, I probably would have said something_, he admitted ruefully. _But it was Bucky. I can separate the Winter Solider from the guy who has been by my side since I was five years old, but I can't ask anyone else to make the same call. I couldn't ask you to try and see my point of view, so I took the coward's way out, and I just didn't say anything. There's nothing I wouldn't do to save him, Tony. You're my friend, and I would do anything for you, but I couldn't do that._

Tony didn't want to forgive. He really didn't. But the thing was, he could understand. If he had known, he would have asked Steve to help him bring his parents' murderer down. He probably would have played on Howard being Steve's friend back in the day. He would have tried to appeal to the soldier's sense of duty and honor. And Steve would have had to say no. He would have probably destroyed their friendship anyway if he had done that, because Tony would never take that for an answer. He would have gone after the Winter Soldier himself, and one way or another, they still would have ended up like this.

_Sometimes I just want to punch you in your perfect teeth_, Steve remembered Tony saying, a small smile and a light chuckle coming easily after the heavy conversation.

And just like that, Steve knew that they would be OK. It would take some time, but they wouldn't cut each other out anymore.

And they didn't. They helped each other rebuild. Steve was there right next to Happy and Rhodey when Pepper and Tony finally got married. He was Tony's first call when they found out about Morgan. He was right there in line to hold the baby once Tony convinced Happy to let her go.

Tony was the one who convinced Steve that he needed to get out of the Compound and start reintegrating himself in the world. It had been years on the run for him, and he wasn't entirely sure how not to always be on edge, ready to leave at a moment's notice.

But there was no more imminent threat. Thanos had won. The aftermath hadn't been pretty, countries were still fighting each other for resources, people were still trying to find out what had happened to friends and loved ones, but slowly they were coming together.

**XXX**

"Steve?"

Steve blinked and realized that they had been standing by the lake for far longer than he had thought. The light had faded rapidly, and the funeral goers had mostly left.

Bucky and Sam were still there though, still waiting and watching. Sam had come closer, standing just behind the two super soldiers. Steve tried to smile but knew it fell flat. "Sorry. Lost in my own head there for a while. I'm fine."

Neither one believed him, but they couldn't really argue. For them, it had been days. Faded out one minute, and back in the next. Only it wasn't minutes. It was years. Five years Steve and the others had had to live with half the world just vanished. How did one even pick up and move forward after that?

"Steve?" The quiet call interrupted anything Sam or Bucky might have said, even if they could think of something. All three men turned to see Pepper approaching, still dressed in her black funeral dress – she was so burning this dress tomorrow. Morgan was in her arms, wearing Captain America pajama bottoms and a Hulk t-shirt. Pepper tried to smile but it came out weak and watery. "She wanted you to tuck her in."

Steve immediately smoothed his face out and offered the almost five-year-old a much more reassuring smile than he had mustered for his two friends a few moments ago. "Hey Maguna, you making things difficult for your mom?" he reached out and Morgan willingly let herself be transferred to the new embrace.

"Daddy always tells me a story, Uncle Steve," she whispered, burying her face into the soldier's strong shoulder.

Steve could do little more than hold her tightly. His eyes met Pepper's over the girl's head, and he saw a few tears leak out before she wiped them away. "I've got this," he whispered, and waited until she nodded gratefully, before he carried the child back towards the house.

Peter and May were still in the living room when he came inside, and Happy could be heard cleaning up in the kitchen, but everyone else was gone. They looked up when they heard the door close, but let Steve and Morgan pass without comment.

Steve carried his pseudo niece upstairs and settled her on her twin sized bed. The Iron Man sheets twisted his heart painfully, but he refused to let it show. "Do you want me to tell you a story?" he asked instead, once he was sure his voice wouldn't shake.

Morgan sniffled. "Daddy always said not to let you tell me stories, Uncle Steve," she mumbled. "He said you'd lie and twist things around so that he would look like an idiot."

Steve snorted. "I would never have to lie to do that," he whispered conspiratorially. "Your daddy's already an idiot. Smartest idiot I know." _Knew._ Damn it, he needed to stop thinking in the present tense.

Morgan frowned, confused. "How?" she asked.

Steve's smile dropped slightly as he thought, trying to come up with a story that wouldn't make them both burst into tears. It took a minute, but then he found it. He grinned. "Did your dad ever tell you about the biggest birthday party he ever threw your mom?"

Morgan shook her head, so Steve let himself fall into the story. Planning the whole thing in a week, roping Steve and Bruce into helping, inviting hundreds of people, enough food to feed a city – _three cities_. Chefs from multiple five star restaurants doing the catering. Four floors of the tower filled, with a live band on each floor. "It was a great party," Steve admitted. "No doubt about that. Unfortunately, your dad got the date wrong."

Morgan laughed, her eyes gleaming with this new information about her parents. "He did?"

Steve nodded, letting out a small chuckle. "Pepper walks in, looks at the guests – Tony's right there in front of a sheet cake the size of your bed," he paused so that Morgan could let out a small gasp at the idea of a cake that large, "and says, 'you know my birthday was two months ago, right?'"

Morgan laughed again, grinning widely. "Why didn't he just give her the party on her birthday?"

Steve shook his head and snaked an arm around her back, tugging her closer as she burrowed into his side. "Your dad's a brilliant idiot, Maguna," he informed her. "He had spent weeks practically locked inside his lab working on something, and thought it had only been a few days. When he realized how far off he was on the date, he took a napkin and wiped off the 'happy birthday' on the cake, turned back to her and said, 'this is the part where I make up some excuse about how it's not a surprise party if it happens on the actual day, but I know you won't believe me and I want cake. So it's now a 'thanks for being in my life I wouldn't be able to function without you' party. Cake?'"

Morgan laughed again. "Was mommy mad?"

Steve chuckled. "Pissed. He hadn't even gotten her favorite cake flavor right."

Morgan gasped. "Really?" How could daddy do such a thing?

Steve shrugged. "He made up for it later," he reassured the girl. "Had Uncle Happy run out to pick up a carrot cake for the two of them later that night. Your mom later said it was the best thanks for being a part of my life party she'd ever been to."

Morgan grinned, but then let the smile fall away slowly as the silence began to permeate the room. "I want daddy," she whispered, tears beginning to build in her eyes.

Steve winced, hugging her closer, one arm around her shoulders the other cradling her head. "I know, sweetie," he replied softly. "I wish I could bring him back for you."

"Why can't you?" Morgan asked suddenly, pulling back. "Daddy says you can do anything. He always says 'if you need help and you can't talk to me, call Uncle Steve.'"

Steve bit his lip and shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Morgan. There are some things even I can't do. I miss him too." He drew her back in, hugging her tightly as she finally gave into the tears.

It only took her a few minutes to cry herself to sleep, but Steve stayed there far longer, holding her gently, wiping away the dried tear tracks as he tried to compose himself. Finally, he set her down and pulled up the comforter.

Morgan shifted in her sleep but didn't wake, and Steve forced himself to leave the room.

**XXX**

He was still thinking about that night a few days later when Bruce told him that they finally had the smaller time machine built and were ready to return the stones.

He had offered to be the one to do it, despite protests from Sam and Bucky. But he was experienced in time travel – and wasn't that just his life now? Time travel? Seriously? – and he had just gotten them back, he couldn't deal with it if something happened to either one of them again. Besides, he had a hammer to get back to its owner, and with Thor off into space with the Guardians, he was the only one who could wield it.

"You sure about this?"

Steve turned and looked at Bucky. He tried to smile but knew that his oldest friend saw right through it. "Sure," he replied easily, going for nonchalance but falling far short. "Just a few stops, drop off a few stones, and then on my way."

Bucky frowned. "You're not going to do something stupid, are you?"

Steve grimaced. "How can I? I'm leaving all the stupid with you."

Bucky's frown deepened. "Steve…"

Steve sighed, and dropped his gaze. His eyes suddenly looked every bit the hundred-year-old man he was. He could pretend with just about everyone else, but not Bucky. Never Bucky. "I'm tired, Buck. Tired of fighting, tired of losing everything. I feel like I've been playing a role for so long, I have no idea who I am anymore."

"So stop," Bucky replied reasonably. "Return the stones and then retire. Find a place in the countryside somewhere, or by a lake – if Stark could do it, so can you."

"Find some goats and shack up with them?" Steve grinned, and Bucky shoved him lightly. So maybe becoming a Wakandan goat herder hadn't been his best idea.

"Punk," he retorted. "I'm serious though. You don't have to keep fighting anymore. The world's saved."

"For now," Steve muttered, looking away. "Something always happens, Buck. Whether it's a threat from outer space or your run of the mill terrorists. There's always something. I thought once that if I didn't have a war to fight I wouldn't know who I am, and I was right. The last few years, once people finally settled down and started figuring out how to live without blaming each other for their losses… I'm out of place here. The only thing I'm ever good for is a shield. I was created to be a weapon, Buck. I never needed to be anything else, they never wanted me to be anything else."

"Bullshit," Bucky retorted. "_I _was created to be a weapon, Steve. You were created to be a symbol."

"Because that's so much better," Steve muttered.

Bucky ignored him. "Seriously punk, you need to snap out of it. Return the stones and then come back and figure out how to live without a war. You don't even have the shield anymore, remember? So get your shit together, finish this last mission, and then you and I will figure out how to be regular humans, OK?"

Steve looked at him, confused. "You and me?"

Bucky shrugged. "I'm done fighting, Steve. I mean, I'm not saying I wouldn't pitch in if something like this ever happened again – and oh god I seriously hope that never happens – but I don't want to spend the rest of my life fighting a war, Steve. You were the one who couldn't wait to join the army, remember?"

Steve smiled slightly. "You always were following me," he remembered. "Couldn't trust anyone else to watch my back."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "You're always too busy watching out for everyone else. No sense of self preservation. Asshole." Steve let out a soft huff, but didn't contradict the former assassin. After a moment, Bucky sighed. "We all made our choices, Steve. I just don't want you to do anything stupid because you're still hurting over losing Stark and Romanoff."

Bruce called out to them at that moment, interrupting any further conversation. "We're ready!" he informed the crowd around the machine.

Steve and Bucky walked over, joining Sam at Bruce's side. Bucky stayed there while Steve grasped the case with the stones in one hand, and Mjolnir in the other, climbing onto the platform. He met Bucky's gaze head on and nodded slightly in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture.

He listened to Bruce with half an ear – "five seconds for us, but as long as he needs" – and let his gaze linger one last time on two of the best friends had had ever or could ever have. With a bright flash, he disappeared.

**XXX**

His conversation with Bucky stayed at the front of his mind as he made his first few stops. Asgard, one less stone and one less hammer. New York, two stones down. Camp Lehigh, one more stone gone. He had to force himself not to go back and find Peggy again. Seeing her the last time had been jarring, and he had wanted so badly to just gather her in his arms and never let her go. But he couldn't disrupt the timeline any more than they already had. Besides, she had lived a full life with her husband and children. He could never take that away from her.

Morag was a completely dead planet. Steve didn't waste time, returning the stone to the vault Rhodey had told him about, and reactivating his suit.

One more to go. Steve still didn't know what he would do after this. There was a large part of him that wanted to take one of the extra vials of Pym particles he had on him, just in case, and just… not return to the present. But he had made so many promises to Tony over the years, to always be there. Just because Tony wasn't, didn't mean he could check out. He owed it to Morgan and Pepper.

But what he told Bucky was true. He was tired. He was so tired of always fighting and losing so much more than he gained. He wanted to rest. He wanted to be done. Tony had created Ultron so that they could 'win the war and go home', because he had seen an ending. He had seen a way out. Steve never could. Whatever Bucky said, he was a weapon, plain and simple. He had one purpose – to fight, to save others so that they could go home and live after the war.

And he had failed. Tony. Natasha. Every death weighed on him until he felt like he was buried under a twenty-story building and would never be able to dig himself free.

The eerie plains of Vormir loomed around him, and Steve forced himself to make for the stairs he could see set into one mountain in front of him. Two thirds of the way up, he felt someone - or something - join him.

"Welcome, Steven Son of Sarah."

Steve looked up and set his mouth into a grim line. "You've got to be shitting me."

Johann Schmidt didn't react. "What you seek is no longer present. You have come for nothing."

Steve rolled his eyes. "So this is where you disappeared to. I thought the Tesseract would have just disintegrated you."

Schmidt's gaze remained impassive. "The stone in the Tesseract brought me here. My penance for seeking that which I could not control. I am to spend eternity as a guide, leading others to a power I can never possess. But the fact remains, Captain, what you seek is not here."

Steve finally smiled, just a shadow of a smirk that crossed his lips and was gone in an instant. "Not seeking. Returning."

For the first time, Schmidt looked fazed.

Steve shrugged. "We're done with it."

Schmidt observed the Captain carefully, and then nodded. "This way, then." He led them up the remaining stairs and to the rocky look out where just a few hours earlier – by Vormir's standards – Natasha had thrown herself off a cliff to give Clint the opportunity to go home and hold his family again.

"Throw it over the edge, Captain," the Red Skull instructed. "The fabric of reality thanks you for your service."

Well that just sounded overly dramatic, but Steve didn't question it. He knew from Bruce's interaction with both Strange and Wong years ago and the Ancient One during their trek through time that these stones were in fact what shaped the fabric of their existence as they knew it. So sure, why not. It was kind of nice to be thanked by 'the fabric of reality'?

He threw the stone over the edge.

**XXX**

The world disappeared into a flash of bright orange light, and when Steve's vision cleared, he was no longer standing at the top of the mountain.

All around him was a thick fog, and he could feel something like water licking at his boots. He looked down, but the fog was so thick that he couldn't see anything below his knees. When he brought his arm up, he was no longer wearing the time GPS on his hand.

_Steven son of Sarah. Man out of time._

The voice seemed to echo around him, coming from everywhere and nowhere.

Steve frowned. "What is this?"

The voice seemed to heave a sigh. _Never before has one returned the stone to its resting place. The universe has taken, as it would have again, had you not altered the course. Always, the stone returns to the source._

Steve had no idea what was going on. "You're welcome?"

Now there was definite amusement in the ethereal entity's tone. _You offer it freely, expecting nothing in return. You, who have lost so much to the realm of death. A soul for a soul exchange, and yet you do not even attempt a bargain._

Steve frowned. "You mean, I could have?" Clint had said it was permanent, so he hadn't even let himself consider the possibility.

_No._ The voice was resolute. _A soul for a soul. The stone contains the soul realm, but it is not a soul itself._

Steve was getting confused. "Then… why am I here?"

The voice was perplexed now. _You seek only to right the balance of the universe. Return the entities to their proper place and keep the flow of time intact. You have succeeded. Never before have we seen one less eager for the power at his command. You had the stones and yet all you sought was to fix the wrongs that had been committed by another. Not your responsibility, not your duty, and yet you fought._

Steve glared at nothing. "It _was_ my responsibility," he argued. "Thanos may have caused the destruction, but we had the ability to fight back. It took us far too long to figure out a plan, but we couldn't let all those people stay gone. The universe needed to be set right."

_Indeed. _The amusement was back. _Earth's mightiest heroes. Guardians of the Galaxy. You stand together, you fight together, you persevere together._

"Not without cost," Steve admitted. He had no idea what was going on, but so far it didn't seem like this… whatever this was, wanted to hurt him. Just… to understand?

_Cost…_ there was an edge to the sexless voice's tone, as if it was trying to draw Steve towards a conclusion. _Everything we do has a cost. Pay now or pay later, with someone else's credit or your own, but you will pay._

"I would never want someone else to pay for my mistakes," Steve argued. "I've made so many over the years, and all I've ever tried to do is set them right." He grimaced. "I would have worn the gauntlet in a heartbeat, if I had been in the right position. Tony had a family to go back to. I brought him into that fight, and now he's gone."

_You have lost much, Steven son of Sarah. I know your struggle. I know your fears. I know your pain._

"What does it matter?" Steve asked reasonably. "We made our choices. We brought everyone back. We won."

_Did you?_

Steve frowned. "Are you saying… was Thanos right?" He could never accept that, but then, he was only too human. He loved and laughed and lived in a much smaller world. This entity was not mortal. It didn't have the same kinds of attachments as him. Perhaps it too saw the merit in Thanos' actions?

_It is not for me to decide._

This voice was seriously getting on his nerves.

_You lived in a world without half its population for many years, did you not? You grieved, but you all moved forward._

"We were all missing something," Steve argued. "We learned to adapt to survive, but we never moved on."

_And now?_

Steve bit his lip and sighed. "Millions of people who have suddenly reappeared to find that they no longer have jobs or homes. The blink of an eye and it's been five years. It's a whole new world for them. But at the same time, people who have spent those five years in mourning suddenly have their loved ones back. It's… chaos, but given time? We'll adapt again. I can't believe that Thanos was right. He had unlimited power at his fingertips, and instead of thinking about how he could increase the resources, he decided to just get rid of half of living beings."

_And you, Steven son of Sarah? What would you have done?_ There was no condemnation or mocking, just idle curiosity.

Steve shook his head. "I would never have used the damn things in the first place. We're not perfect, and yes, we're going to run out of resources sooner rather than later if we don't do something to fix that, but the solution isn't to just… get rid of half the problem. That doesn't give you a solution, it just gives you half a problem you still don't know how to solve and a whole other mess of problems piled on that you never even considered."

_Never before have we seen a man like you._ The voice was smug now. _Many have taken a stone over the eons. Held power in their grasp and used it to further their own ends. Never before has one held a stone and looked for a solution._

The fog around him swirled, orange murkiness flashing to a light purple and then pale yellow. _You have sacrificed and lost and mourned, but always strove to be better. You have stood in front of humanity as a shield and shown them the way forward. We offer you a chance. That which you most desire. It can be done._

Steve frowned. What he most desired… "You can… bring someone back? You would do that? I thought you said it was impossible."

_A soul for a soul_. The voice resonated around him. _I cannot simply return that which has been lost. Had it been anyone else, perhaps I would not even be offering this now, but you have… intrigued me, Steven son of Sarah._

Steve's frown deepened. "So you can't bring someone back, but… you can?" He got the distinct impression that the voice was raising an eyebrow, which was just weird considering it was a disembodied voice and didn't actually have eyebrows. His eyes widened as he caught what the voice was implying. A soul for a soul. "You can't give me someone back, but you can trade. Right? A soul for a soul."

The voice sounded very pleased when it replied. _Just this once. For your sacrifices and your selflessness. For the universe to which you restored balance. An offer only. You may choose to decline._

Declining was never an option, now that Steve knew it was possible. One soul, one person. Steve knew what that meant. Natasha or Tony? He so wanted to bring both of them home. So many people on Earth who would never get over their loss.

But the thing was, it really wasn't that hard a decision. Steve and Natasha had done a lot of talking over the last five years, and he knew that she felt the bone-deep weariness at continually fighting a war with no end in sight just as badly as he did. For her, it was the ever-present need to wipe out the red in her ledger. Refusing to take a break because she had already taken so much from so many people, so how could she rest now? She had offered herself to the stone for Clint, content in the knowledge that they would bring everyone back, and Clint would be there to see his children and his wife once more.

Steve couldn't take that choice away from her. But Tony…

Tony had a nearly five-year-old girl at home who had cried herself to sleep every night for the last two weeks.

Tony had a wife who couldn't even set foot inside the bedroom they had once shared, sleeping on the couch every night – when she actually slept.

A teenager from Queens who had just started to figure out what it meant to have a father-figure again. Tony was reluctant to admit it, but Steve knew that he hadn't just been 'the kid from Queens', he was Tony's kid.

"I'll do it." Steve was proud of his voice for not shaking.

The entity seemed unsurprised. _You sacrifice your life so willingly, Steven son of Sarah. Always your life for others. _

Steve swallowed. "I can do this for Tony. For Pepper and Morgan and Peter. They need him, way more than they need me. The world needs him more than me."

He got the impression of a nod from the entity. _The fabric gives you this gift. It is done._

And the sad thing was, Steve actually did see it as a gift. Trading his life for Tony's was the best sacrifice he could make, and he made it willingly. Morgan, Pepper, Peter, Happy, Rhodey… Tony had so many people that needed him. Steve knew his friends would be sad. They might mourn him, and he felt terrible for leaving Bucky alone, but they would move forward. They would survive.

And Morgan would grow up never knowing what it was like to turn around to tell her father something, only to be met with empty space and all-encompassing loss. Steve had felt it often enough with Bucky. He couldn't bare the thought of his pseudo niece being buried under that crushing grief until every single thought of her father brought pain and sadness.

The fog flashed back to orange, and a bright light filled his vision. Looking to the center of the brightness, he could see a dark shape at its center.

"Steve?"

The call was faint, but Steve would recognize that voice anywhere. He smiled through the sudden onslaught of tears. "Tony," he breathed.

The shape continued to form, and Steve could see Tony's face now. It looked like Tony could see him too, if the worried expression was any indication. "Steve? What… What's going on? What did you do?"

Steve swallowed harshly. "It's OK, Tony. Everything's OK."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because I believe that. You did something stupid and selfless again, didn't you." It definitely wasn't a question.

Steve shrugged. "You know me. Not happy unless I can lay down my life for truth, justice, and the American way, right?"

Tony didn't rise to the bait. Steve frowned when the world around him began to blur. Tony was becoming clearer, but everything else was just a mess of colors. He knew he was almost out of time, and he was grateful to the... stone? fabric of reality? Whatever it was, for giving him just a few final minutes with his friend. He hadn't expected this.

"Steve!"

And Tony's panicked cry was another indication that the clock was about to expire.

Steve forced himself to smile. "You're going to be OK, Tony. Tell Maguna she was the best thing to ever happen to me. Tell her I love her. And tell Bucky…" he sighed. "Tell him this was my choice."

The world faded out to a plain gray fog, and then he was gone.

Tony sat up, shaking his head to clear it. "Damn it, Rogers," he muttered. He was alone. Steve was gone. By Tony's right hand was a time GPS, coordinates already locked in.

Tony stood up, picking up the device and sliding it onto his hand. "Damn you for being all self-sacrificial and making me go tell a four-year-old her uncle's never coming home because he thought someone else's life was worth more than his." Tony continued to mutter to himself as he clicked the GPS and disappeared in a whirlwind of light.

**XXX**

"He's coming back!"

The first thing Tony heard was Bruce's voice, calling out as the lights began to whirl around the small time machine.

The first thing he saw was the utter shock on Bruce's face when the lights cleared and it wasn't Steve standing in front of them.

"Umm…. Steve?"

Tony rolled his eyes and hopped down off the platform. "You brought Lang back a baby, Bruce. In what world do you think Steve would come back as me?"

"What the hell?" Sam's outburst demanded an explanation. "How… where's Steve?"

Tony winced and removed the GPS from his hand. "Yeah, about that." He sighed. "Damn idiot. Apparently, he got it in his head that the world needed me more or some stupid shit like that. Not entirely sure what happened, but I got the impression the stone offered him a trade or something."

"A soul for a soul," Bruce breathed, and Sam looked at him, confused.

Tony nodded, grimacing. "Yeah. This wasn't… I mean, I wouldn't have wanted him to, but you know how he gets when he has an idea in his head." He glanced over at Barnes, who hadn't moved since Tony had landed on the platform. The former assassin's gaze was still fixed on the small time machine, eyes glazed over as if staring hard enough could somehow magically make his friend appear. Tony sighed. He had made nice with Steve years ago, but the last time he had seen Barnes they had been in the middle of one hell of a disagreement. What did you even say to a man when his best friend had just traded his life to bring back the man that had tried to kill him?

There was a small commotion coming from the house, and then people began to spill out.

"Holy shit," someone exclaimed. Happy.

"Tony?" That was Rhodey, looking and sounding completely incredulous.

"Tony." That one was breathed reverently by Pepper as she grasped the small hand of…

"Daddy!" Morgan broke free from her mother's grasp and ran down the lawn to be scooped up by Tony in a move they had perfected many times over the years.

"Maguna," Tony whispered. "Missed you."

"Daddy," Morgan cried, burrowing into his shoulder and squeezing him as tightly as a four-year-old could. "Don't leave again. Promise?"

"I promise," Tony said softly. "Love you three thousand _and five_."

Morgan giggled and looked up. "That's not a real thing, silly."

Tony mock-gasped. "It's not? My mistake."

Pepper had reached them now, and she held out one hand, almost afraid that touching him would prove he wasn't really there and this was all a figment of her imagination. Tony let her run a finger down his cheek, kissing it gently when it brushed across his lips.

She leaned forward, and snaked her arm across his shoulders, hugging him tightly around the child in his arms. He leaned into her embrace willingly, breathing in the unique scent that was part vanilla, part lavender, and one hundred percent Pepper.

"Are you hungry?" she finally whispered when they pulled apart a few minutes later.

Tony snorted, because of course that's the first thing you think of when your husband comes back to life. "I could eat. There are no cheeseburgers in the afterlife. Total letdown."

Morgan clapped her hands. "We should have a 'thanks for being in my life I wouldn't be able to function without you' party! Like you had for mommy when you forgot her birthday."

Tony blinked, and behind them, Bruce snorted in amusement. "Who told you I forgot?" he asked sternly. "I would never forget such a momentous occasion."

Morgan grinned. "Uncle Steve. He said you spent too much time in your lab and didn't realize what month it was. He also said you're a brilliant idiot which I don't understand how that works but it made Uncle Steve smile."

Tony's grip on his daughter tightened, and Pepper watched him worriedly. She had no idea what had happened but she wasn't stupid. She knew Steve had been going to return the stones today. Now Tony was here but Steve wasn't.

Tony forced himself to smile. "Yeah, Uncle Steve likes to make fun of me. Come on Maguna, let's go have a party."

He carried her up the lawn and into the house, Pepper at his side. Happy and Rhodey followed quickly behind. There would be time later to tell Morgan what her Uncle Steve had done for her. To hold her as she cried at losing yet another person in her life, even as she got the first one back. He would tell her what Steve had said, about how much light he had gotten from having the little girl in his life. There would be time to tell her how much love he had for her, how he had been willing to sacrifice every part of himself if it only meant she could have her father back.

Tony knew why Steve had done it. He totally understood, because he knew Steve far better than many people realized. He knew how hard it was for Steve to live in this new world, so far out of his time that he constantly felt like he was drowning. Steve had friends in this time, but he continually mourned for what he had lost. Even getting Barnes back hadn't changed that. Peggy, the Howling Commandos, even Howard, Steve had given up so much when he had flown that plane into the ice all those years ago.

He had made some good friends here, but it was in his nature to always place everyone else's life above his own. Once he had learned there was a way to bring Tony back to his daughter, he would have done whatever it took to do it. No matter the cost to himself, even – and perhaps especially – if it meant he could finally let go and move on.

Tony hated him for it.

Tony loved him for it.

**XXX**

It was several hours later when Tony managed to escape the constant presence of Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and Peter and May who had come back as soon as Happy had called them with the news – once they finally believed that he was telling the truth – to wander back outside. He totally understood their clinginess, apparently he had returned to a couple weeks after the final battle, and just days after his own funeral. Damn, he really should have shown up earlier. Nothing like crashing your own funeral, that would have been so epic.

But Steve had given him one more message, and no matter what his own feelings were, he owed it to both of them to deliver it.

Barnes was still there. Tony was actually surprised, he had expected the former Winter Soldier to have taken off as soon as it became clear Steve was gone.

The former assassin had moved to the water's edge, where just days before Steve had lost himself in memories. He tensed slightly but didn't give any other outward indication that he had heard the other man approach.

For a few minutes, Tony remained silent, watching as the last few rays of sun disappeared, and the water became lost in the inky blackness of nighttime.

"I don't think he wanted to leave you," Tony finally spoke, voice hushed. He didn't look at Barnes, and for his part, Barnes also stayed focused on the water in front of them.

"I've been leaving him over and over, guess it was finally his turn," the super soldier whispered back. Tony raised an eyebrow, and Barnes huffed. "Falling off that train, dragging him out of the Potomac, over and over when he was trying to track me down, going back into cryo until they could get rid of the HYDRA programming, getting snapped to dust… I don't blame him for being done."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Hate to break it to you Barnes, but Steve doesn't work that way. He never held any of that against you. I know you lost a few years while you were doing time as a dust pile, so you don't have the same perspective, but Steve would have done anything if it meant saving his friends. This wasn't about evening the score or some bullshit. He…" Tony sighed. "He told me to tell you that this was his choice. He didn't choose to leave you, he just…" he shook his head, annoyed. "He was so damn self-sacrificial that he couldn't live with a world where someone else made the suicidal play to save everyone. So damn it he had to go back and just one-up me, right? Asshole."

Unbelievably, Barnes snorted. "He really was," he agreed ruefully. "I thought he might stay back there, you know. Just, take one of those time jumps and go back to the 40's, find Peggy, settle down and finally be able to live without a war… I had a feeling I'd be losing him today, but I still wasn't ready for it."

"He wouldn't have done that." Tony was positive. "I don't care how much he missed Peggy or his life back in the 40's. He would have screwed the timeline up so badly trying to fix every little thing. Can you imagine him sitting on the sidelines while SHIELD became HYDRA, knowing you were out there somewhere, brainwashed? Besides, he had too much respect for Peggy to take away the family she was able to build once she let him go. I asked him to take care of Morgan and Pepper if anything ever happened to me. I made him promise to be there if I couldn't. He wouldn't have broken that promise. So instead, he decided to make it moot. God, I really want to hate him."

"It's a feeling," Barnes commiserated. "You get used to it. I didn't realize it was possible to love and hate someone so much at the same time, but he's been defying expectations since I was six."

The two lapsed back into silence for another few minutes.

"I'm sorry," Tony blurted out finally. Barnes looked at him, confused, and Tony grimaced. "Don't make me say it again. I know what he meant to you, and what you meant to him. I can't say I regret what he did because I get to go home to my wife and daughter, but I hate that I get to go home and he doesn't. We had our issues back before this whole mess, but I'm really glad we were able to work things out. Steve was one of my best friends, Barnes. I might still have a few issues with you, but it's been an eye opening few years, and I don't want to be angry anymore. And Steve would want me to make nice." Tony huffed. "Stupid. He's not even here to see me be the bigger man and everything," he muttered. "What do I care if he's proud of me for letting the resentment go?"

Barnes raised an eyebrow. "Are you… having a conversation with yourself?"

Tony looked up and glared. "Don't mock me. Here I am trying to be all magnanimous and shit, and you just have to go and ruin it."

Barnes smirked. "Sorry. Go ahead."

Tony growled. "No. I'm done." He turned back to the house. "You should spend the night. Morgan apparently loves your arm." And damn it what had he missed in the last couple weeks, that his daughter was somehow enamored with a deadly assassin?

He heard Barnes rush to join him as they made their way back to the house. "Steve told her it was magic," he informed Tony. "She spent an entire day following me around saying abracadabra. Steve and I started making things happen – bowl of food appears on the table, lights turn off and on, things like that - every time she said it."

"Magic's not real," Tony grumbled. "My kid should know better than that." He looked at Barnes out of the corner of his eye. "But thanks for entertaining her."

Barnes shrugged. "She's a good kid. Really loves Steve. Hard to hate anyone who thinks like that."

And Tony heard the meaning behind the simple statement. Barnes didn't necessarily like Tony – maybe because of the whole tried to kill him thing – but he knew that Tony cared for Steve, so he couldn't hate him for that simple reason alone.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry too."

The words came out of nowhere, as they reached the porch and Tony was about to open the door to head inside. He stopped and turned around, facing Barnes.

The soldier shrugged. "I can tell myself it was the Winter Soldier all I want, but it was still my hands. I did that and I can never take it back."

Tony sighed. "You didn't do it," he argued wearily. "I finally get what Steve tried to tell me all those years ago. I never believed in things like brainwashing, I mean seriously? It's straight out of a cartoon! But I've had to alter a lot of my perceptions over the years, and I know that if you had been in control you never would have killed anyone. I was madder at Steve for not telling me what happened, but we figured that out years ago too. If you want my forgiveness, fine, but as far as I'm concerned there's nothing to forgive. I blame HYDRA."

Tony paused, and was rewarded when he saw Barnes' hesitant nod. He was about to turn back to the door when something compelled him to add, "If you really want to make it up though, there is something you can do for me."

Barnes frowned, confused. "I thought you said I didn't need to?"

Tony shrugged. "Call me selfish. Yeah, you know what? Scratch what I just said, there is definitely something I want you to do to make up for the fact that you killed my parents."

Barnes looked a little nervous. "What is it?"

Tony smirked. "Don't disappear." Barnes blinked, startled. Tony nodded decisively. "Yeah, that'll work. I want you to stick around. Maybe not here, at least full time, but stay close. Morgan needs her Uncle Steve, and since he's not going to be here, you need to keep him alive for her. I've got some stories, but you've known the guy since you were practically in diapers."

"Seriously Stark? I was six when we met. Steve was five. _So_ not in diapers."

Tony shrugged. "Same difference. Point: I want you to be Uncle Bucky to my kid. Oh god, did I actually just say that?" he grimaced and shook his head, looking away. "Wow, maybe I came back wrong or something. Damn, can't believe I'm actually saying this. But seriously," he looked back up and fixed Barnes with a fierce stare. "Morgan seems to like you, and I can't take anything else away from my kid. Someday I'm going to have to tell her that I'm the reason Steve never came back, no matter how much I get that 'it was his choice' and 'he wouldn't want me to blame myself' and all those crappy platitudes. I hate platitudes. Let's just agree that this whole thing sucks ass, hate Steve for what he did, and love him all the more because of it. But please just stay in Morgan's life."

Hesitantly, Barnes nodded, and Tony smiled. "Great! Now, that's enough of the feelings for one day, right? If you need a place to crash, we've got a spare room. I'm going to work on finding a new Avengers Compound since the last one got kind of… broken. You'll have a room there too once we figure that all out, but you don't have to if you'd rather go back to Wakanda or something."

Bucky didn't even know how to unpack that stream of consciousness, but he did accept the spare room for the night, and headed there silently, passed Happy and Rhodey on the couch in the living room, and passed the second spare room where Peter and his aunt May were settling in for the night – Peter hadn't wanted to leave Tony so soon, and May hadn't wanted to leave Peter, so they had been invited to stay as well.

He collapsed onto the bed with a silent groan, and finally let himself grieve. Tears poured from his eyes, and he struggled not to scream his anger.

Bucky wasn't sure how he was supposed to live in this world without Steve. Steve's calm, unwavering presence, his certainty and pure _goodness_, even in a world that was more shades of gray than there were stars in the sky. Steve had never been blind to the world's faults, but he had never let that stop him from stepping up to defend the innocent. Even if he got punished for it. Especially when he got punished for it.

Bucky didn't know if he'd ever forgive Steve for doing this, for choosing to send Stark back instead of coming home himself, but he could never say it wasn't such a Steve thing to do. And he could respect the hell out of it. Steve was always thinking of others.

Bucky had only gotten snippets of information on what the last five years had been like – Bruce (seriously, he was Hulk and Bruce now, what the hell?!) had told him and Sam about Steve trying to council those who had been left behind. Pepper had briefly mentioned Steve working with new world leaders to put the planet back into some semblance of order. Apparently, the Accords were over, people were so busy figuring out how to survive and rebuild that they didn't really care about whether those offering to help had powers or not. Rhodey told him that the best thing to come out of the snap was that Thaddeus Ross was no longer around to fuck everything up.

But Bucky remembered that conversation he and Steve had had only this morning – shit, had it really been less than a day? Steve didn't know how to live without a war. He felt like the only thing he was good for was to be a shield so that other people could survive. And to the very end, that's what he had done.

So no, Bucky might never forgive him, but he could never hate him for it. As Tony had said, this was Steve's choice. And Bucky would make his own. He'd try to integrate with Steve's family here – Tony, Pepper, Morgan, and the other Avengers. Steve may have felt out of place here, but Bucky could see the gravity well where once there had been a super soldier punk, and now was just a sucking black hole.

He hated that Steve could never and would never see just how much influence he had on this group. And it had only been one afternoon. There were still so many others that needed to be told – Wanda, Barton, Lang, Thor, T'Challa and Shuri, all the rest. Steve might think he could lift right out and they'd all go on, but some things could never completely mend. This would be a scar that would never fully heal.

They would carry on his legacy, continue protecting their world and the universe, but there would always be something missing. Still though, Bucky knew he would honor that legacy to his dying breath. He had told Steve that he didn't want to fight anymore, but the truth was, Bucky knew he would never be able to sit things out and let others take up the shield – metaphorically of course, Steve's current shield was in pieces among the rubble of what used to be the Avengers Compound – if he had the ability to step in himself.

And one day, he would move on, find Steve in whatever version of the afterlife existed, and give that goddamn punk a piece of his mind.

_So… yeah. That happened. Not sure how this all came out, but… hope you liked it? I really wanted to bring both Tony and Natasha back, but there was no way to do that without it being completely cheap. And I like to think that Natasha would have kicked Steve's ass if she ever learned he had a chance to save either her or Tony, and he chose her._

_Anyway, please review. Let me know what you think!_


	2. Lay Your Weary Head To Rest

**Title: Lay Your Weary Head To Rest**

**Summary:**** They say things always look better in the morning. Tony called BS. Sure, he might still be here, but Steve was still gone and there was nothing better about that. Interestingly enough, returning from the dead meant a lot of explanations. Crap.**

Tony really tried not to feel guilty as he watched Bucky head towards the guest room, before making his way upstairs to the master suite. Happy and Rhodey were still downstairs, likely planning to crash on the couches in the living room tonight, while Peter and May were in the other guest room. It had been a tearful reunion for all of them, and though he knew they had to have a lot of questions, none had been answered that afternoon. He would need to give them something soon, but for the moment, they were just happy he was alive and weren't pushing for more.

He had caught Pepper's questioning and concerned looks and knew that she probably had an idea, but she hadn't said anything all afternoon.

She wasn't saying anything now. Tony could feel her focused gaze as he shed his clothes and put on a pair of sweats and an old MIT t-shirt. He slipped into the bed next to her and pulled the sheets up to his chest, suddenly finding it hard to breathe as the weight of recent events crashed over him.

Pepper snaked an arm across his waist and pressed her forehead into his shoulder blade, offering what comfort she could. "He's dead, isn't he," she whispered, words filled with grief.

She felt his nod, and then Tony flipped over to face her. His own expression was filled with all the guilt he had tried to repress. "The stone offered him a choice, Pep. He could have said no, but he chose to send me back instead." He sounded like he couldn't quite believe it, even though he knew, rationally, that it was the only choice Steve would have made in that position, every fucking time. Damn self-sacrificing idiot.

Pepper sniffed, meeting his tortured gaze with her own tearful one. "He loved you, Tony," she said softly. Tony grimaced, and Pepper shook her head. "You were like a brother to him. He loved you, and he loved me and Morgan too much to not do something if he knew it was possible."

Tony sighed and looked away. He knew this, rationally. He knew the kind of man Steve was, and he knew how much the soldier out of time valued his friends. But knowing didn't make it any easier to live with. "How do I tell Morgan?" he asked desperately. "How do I tell her Uncle Steve's never coming back?"

Pepper's arm tightened around his waist. "Together," she said firmly.

Tony's eyes suddenly and inexplicably filled with tears as he recalled the same word said with the same determination and fervor years ago as they fought side by side to save Sokovia from Tony's mistake. God, Steve had always believed that if they stuck together, the Avengers really could save everyone and solve everything. And he had let his own guilt and fear tear them apart at the worst possible time.

Sure, they had hashed it all out years ago, and both Tony and Steve knew that neither of them was blameless, but Steve wasn't here to share the burden anymore.

"Tony?" Pepper's panicked voice cut through his harsh breathing, and the newly resurrected hero forced himself to calm down.

"Sorry," he muttered, but didn't offer up an explanation.

Pepper frowned but didn't force the issue. "Morgan will be sad, but we'll help her get through this."

"It's my fault, Pep," Tony argued. "I mean, it's not like I had a say in the matter, and I would never have let him do this if I had, but at the end of the day what it comes down to is that he traded his life for mine. How do I live with that?"

"Honor his legacy," Pepper's voice was steely and determined. "I swear to God, Tony, if you squander what he gave you, I will never forgive you." Tony blinked, surprised at the vehemence in his wife's tone. Pepper glared. "You will not let this guilt consume you. I've seen what happens when you decide you've given up. You have far more to lose now, and if I even suspect that you're heading in that direction, Morgan and I are gone."

Tony shook his head quickly. He would never risk his family. He knew he hadn't always handled stress and pressure well in the past, but with lots of help from Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, and the Avengers, he had been able to change. "I promise," he assured her.

Pepper's expression fractured, and she leaned forward, crying into his shoulder as she let her own grief for their loss show. Tony wrapped his arms around her and let her cry, feeling his own tears begin to leak out, unable to hold them back anymore.

Tony knew that Pepper and Steve had gotten closer in the five years between snaps, but he was still somewhat in the dark about the last two weeks, and for Pepper, Steve had been one of the only reasons she had gotten this far at all. She really hadn't been coping well, so Steve – with help from Happy and to a lesser extent Bucky – had made sure Morgan had been taken care of, keeping her busy and handling many of the tantrums and crying fits the young girl had had since her father's death. Pepper wanted to be there, but she just couldn't deal with it on top of losing her husband. She hated herself for even thinking it, but new waves of grief washed over her every time she looked at the four-year-old – Morgan looked so much like her dad.

Steve had been a godsend, making sure the child was dressed and fed every morning, keeping her entertained throughout the day, generally seeing to her every need and whim. Steve was such a devoted uncle.

How did they move on from this? How could they explain to Morgan that she had her dad again, but not her uncle? How could they tell her that she could only have one or the other, never again have both?

Questions and despair clogged the air as both heroes dropped off to an uneasy sleep.

**XXX**

"Where's Uncle Steve?"

The question sounded out innocently from Morgan's booster seat at the breakfast table the next morning.

All around the room, adults stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the girl.

Bucky's expression froze briefly, before he blinked and forced himself to loosen his grip on the fork he was in danger of bending into an unrecognizable shape.

Happy and Rhodey looked from Morgan to Tony, their expressions giving away their own curiosity. They knew that something had happened yesterday, some reason why Steve hadn't returned but Tony had, but they hadn't asked.

Pepper shot Tony a panicked look from her position by the stove cooking pancakes, and Tony grimaced from behind his cup of coffee but dutifully set the mug down and turned to face his daughter.

It was just the six of them left; Peter and May had departed early, May wanting to get Peter back to their lives – the last few weeks had seen the world attempting to pick up and move on with the sudden return of half its population, and that meant that many schools were starting back up again. Peter had to return to class, as much as he wished he could just stay in the superhero world forever. They would return for the weekend – Peter really wanted to continue getting to know his new little sister – but for the time being, he had to be a regular high schooler again.

"Maguna…" Tony trailed off, not sure how to start.

Morgan frowned at her father. Why didn't he want to tell her? She had just seen Uncle Steve yesterday at breakfast. Where could he have gone?

Pepper set the pan of pancakes aside and took a seat on Morgan's other side. "Uncle Steve had to go away, sweetie," she tried to explain.

Morgan looked at her mother and smiled. "When will he be back?"

Pepper winced. "He's not… he can't come back. I mean –"

"Why not?" Morgan cut her off, confused. "Doesn't he want to see me?"

"Of course he does," Pepper rushed out. "He loved you so much, honey. But sometimes bad things happen to people, and even though we love them and they love us, we can't see them anymore. Uncle Steve is gone, honey. He died. I'm so sorry."

Morgan furrowed her brow. "But you said daddy was gone like that, and he's back now. So when is Uncle Steve coming back?"

Tony winced. Damn it. He took Morgan's little hand in his own. "I'm sorry Maguna, it doesn't work like that."

Morgan sniffed. "But Uncle Steve said that too, and then you came back."

Bucky set his mangled fork down with far more force than was probably necessary, but it had the benefit of drawing every eye to him. He was only focused on Morgan though. His expression was pained but there was an undercurrent of understanding behind his gaze. "Steve loved you, Morgan," he said firmly without a hint of doubt. "He knew how much you missed your dad and he had a chance to change that. He wanted more than anything to bring your dad back for you, but it meant that he had to go away instead. He never hesitated, Morgan. He would do anything for you." Some of that was probably conjecture, but Bucky knew Steve well enough to know that it was more than likely true. That whole soul for a soul thing was pretty self-explanatory, and his goddamn self-sacrificial best friend would do anything up to and including throwing his life away if it meant saving someone else, without question.

Morgan's eyes filled with tears as she looked from her new Uncle Bucky to her dad. Tony grimaced but nodded sadly. "I'm so sorry Maguna."

Morgan started crying in earnest now, but Tony couldn't force himself to move to comfort her. He was responsible for this. Pepper swooped in and picked the child up, taking her upstairs and leaving Tony to deal with everyone else.

Bucky glanced down at his fork, for the first time realizing how badly misshapen it was. Oops.

Rhodey frowned in Tony's direction. "Is that really true?" he asked curiously. Sure, he had figured there had to be some reason why Tony was alive and why Steve had suddenly disappeared, but he hadn't really thought about the specifics. If he had had to imagine a scenario, he might have considered Steve getting Tony from an alternate reality now that they knew those existed, or maybe trading him for the soul stone, sending him back to the future, and then then disappearing into the past. Rhodey knew that Steve still missed his friends from the forties, the girl he was in love with, an era long gone by the time he had been awoken from the ice. It had been kind of obvious before their split years earlier, and even more so in the last five years, but Steve had never felt comfortable in this time. Sure, he had learned to use the technology, and acted all adjusted, but he never quite fit in the same way those who had been born in this era had.

Happy just looked confused. He wasn't exactly close to the Star Spangled Man with a Plan, but he had gotten to know him over the years, especially the last five years with both of them being honorary uncles to the newest member of the Stark family.

Tony sighed and slumped in his seat. His gaze remained fixed on the table in front of him. "The stone offered him a trade," he said grimly. "And the self-sacrificing idiot just jumped all over it. He told whatever that stone thing is to send me back and take him instead. Asshole."

Bucky snorted, reminded of their own conversation the day before. It really was impressive the way Steve could draw such positive and negative emotions in the same breath.

Well, shit," Rhodey breathed, eyes wide. He looked at Bucky briefly, concerned, but when the former Winter Soldier just offered him a shrug and a grimace, he figured that at the very least, he had come to terms with it and they wouldn't need to worry about an ex assassin going on a rampage.

Tony rubbed a hand wearily across his face. "We have to tell everyone," he said quietly. "And… shit, can we tell people Captain America is dead? There would be riots."

They all knew it was true. Bucky hadn't been there the last five years, but the rest of them remembered how much Steve had done as Captain America to assure the world that they would get through this devastation. Captain America was a symbol of hope. What would it do to the country and the world if, in this crucial moment, that hope suddenly vanished?

"He's gone, Stark," Bucky glowered. "They'll just have to deal with it."

"I'm not so sure," Rhodey admitted. "Tony's right, especially right now. People are trying to rebuild and move forward, and the last time they had to do that, it was Captain America who inspired them to work together and make it happen. He can't die. People need that shield."

"The shield's gone," Bucky retorted, eyes ice cold like the winter assassin he was named. Steve was dead and these fuckers were actually thinking about what losing _Captain America_ would do to the world? "Thanos destroyed it."

"We can make another one," Tony mused. "Vibranium's much easier to come by now that we have the king of Wakanda on speed dial."

"And then what?" Bucky seethed, "give some average Joe a weapon and tell him to pretend to be Captain America? There's only one Captain, and he's dead."

"Not some average Joe," Tony countered, eyes lighting on the possibility.

Bucky frowned, confused at the looks Stark and now Rhodey were giving him. They couldn't mean… "I'm an assassin. I'm not a hero."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Cut the bullshit Barnes. You haven't been the Winter Soldier in years, even if you take out the time you spent as a dust pile. You were a hero when you fought alongside Captain America in the forties, you were a hero when you went to Siberia with him to try and stop Zemo, and you were a hero when you faced off against Thanos and his armies. There's only one person Steve would want to see carry the shield after him, and it ain't me, pal."

Rhodey was nodding his agreement, and Happy just remained silent, recognizing that he wasn't part of this conversation. He had spent many years at Tony's side, but he wasn't a superhero.

Bucky shook his head, eyes wide. "I can't do what Steve did," he whispered.

"No one can," Tony admitted ruefully. "But we're not asking you to be Steve. What the world needs is Captain America, and I think you can do that. You can help people in the same way without actually being the guy."

"Think about it," Rhodey advised. "I'm sorry we're bringing all this up right now, but we do need to talk about it, and we'll need to work out some sort of plan. You don't need to make up your mind right now, but at least promise us you'll consider it." He bit his lip, looking far from the confident Air Force Colonel/War Machine he truly was. "Look, I liked Steve. He was a really good guy, even if we all had our issues before Thanos. Even when I kind of hated him for hurting Tony – and yeah, I get that that whole shit show was on a lot of people not just him but I still kind of hated him for it – I always admired the guy. It's not an easy act to follow and Barnes, I know what we're asking you to do. If you decide not to, I'll understand. And I'll do whatever it takes to stop the government, whatever iteration of SHIELD still exists, and whoever else from forcing that mantle onto anyone else because Tony's right. It's you, or it's no one. And if you decide not to, no one will blame you."

Hesitantly, Bucky nodded, and silently left the room.

Tony waited until he heard the door slam and Bucky's footsteps sound across the porch outside, before he slumped in his seat, resting his arms on the table and burrowing his head in them.

"Tony?" Happy's finally spoke, now that the superhero stuff had been set aside.

Tony shook his head, not looking up. "This is so screwed up," he groaned, voice muffled by his arms.

Happy frowned and took a seat next to his employer and friend. Rhodey sat down on Tony's other side.

Tony looked up a moment later, eyes red from tears he refused to shed. He had gotten his crying out last night, and there was nothing he could do but try and move forward and, as Pepper had said, honor the legacy Steve had left behind. Honor the sacrifice he had made. Be the best father, husband, friend, and superhero he could be. "I'm fine," he answered the unspoken question.

Happy just raised a skeptical eyebrow, but Rhodey shook his head in disbelief. "You're not, Tony. None of us are and we probably won't be for a while. Steve was our friend."

Tony shook his head, letting out a long breath of air. "He always put himself up as so confident and sure, you know? Like he was always going to be the dependable one, the guy everyone could rely on. He never doubted himself. But he did, didn't he." Rhodey frowned but offered a small twitch of the fingers, inviting Tony to continue, which he did after another moment of silence. "It wasn't just that Steve was uncomfortable here, right? I call him self-sacrificing, but really it was more like a self-worth problem. Idiot never thought he deserved to be as happy as the rest of us. I never really understood why, but I think it had something to do with guilt – letting Barnes fall off that train, maybe leaving all his friends behind when he crashed that plane, I don't know. What I do know is that he honestly thought that my life was worth more than his, and how do I live with that? After everything I've done, all the shit I've pulled, all the shit I put _him _through, and he still thought that I was more important?"

"You were his friend." It was all Rhodey could offer, empty condolences that did nothing to help.

"And he didn't think that maybe I wanted him to live too?" Tony shot back, glaring at his oldest friend. "He didn't think that maybe I made a choice too, and that right or wrong it should have been my decision?"

"He wanted you to go home to your family, Tony," Rhodey's voice was calm and reassuring. "He saw how much Pepper was struggling, he saw how sad Morgan and Peter were, and he hated that even as a superhero, he couldn't fix it. Because they didn't want him. They just wanted you."

"But I want him," Tony whispered. "I want him to be here to help me figure out how to be a father, and to intimidate any boy who even thinks of looking at my daughter. I want him to be here to see me put aside all the anger and issues and actually try to be friends with his winter soldier assassin buddy. This isn't right!" he slammed his fist down on the table and glared at Rhodey. "We talk about how the world needs Captain America, but Barnes is right too – no one could be Captain America like Steve. It's not the same."

"It won't be," Rhodey agreed. "If Barnes agrees, he won't be Steve's Cap. And I don't think he'd ever try to be. Steve Rogers was a good hero, and a great man. He saw the good in the world, and though I thought it seemed a little naïve at times, I think I understand it now – just because he saw the good in people didn't mean he was blind to their faults or that he couldn't understand the shades of gray. He just wanted to help people be the best version of themselves, and I think he succeeded."

Tony let out a weak chuckle. "He definitely succeeded." His gaze grew wistful. "Over a decade ago I told him everything special about him came out of a bottle, and I never apologized for that. He never brought it up and I let myself think he had forgotten, but the guy had a photographic memory; he couldn't forget if he tried. So I told myself that he had chosen to ignore it, or that he just knew I didn't mean it." He rubbed a hand across his face. "Fuck, I should have apologized. The serum only enhanced what was already there, Steve Rogers is what made Captain America a hero. You're right, Rhodey, he always chose to believe the best in people. No matter what our issues were, or how far we drifted, he never stopped trusting me, even after everything."

Rhodey nodded understandingly. "That dinosaur phone?" He had been there when the package had been dropped off.

Tony snorted. "Steve might have been from a different century but he definitely understood technology better than I gave him credit for. He knew that I could have easily tracked him down using that phone and the number he left in it. But he trusted that I wouldn't. He trusted me to keep him and his little band of rogues safe from Ross and the assholes in charge." Tony grimaced. "Man what was I thinking working with that idiot? Please tell me he's not back in any position of authority."

Even saving the universe had to have some drawbacks, and one of those was that Thaddeus Ross had been saved as well.

Rhodey shook his head amusedly. "Currently enjoying the comfort of a United States prison. He made the mistake of trying to break into the White House after the President refused to see him."  
Tony laughed. "Well, it's not the Raft, but it'll do."

Rhodey cleared his throat. "Also, in the interest of full disclosure I should tell you that Natasha and Steve had that number he left you routed through so many IPs and fake cell towers, you probably wouldn't have been able to actually track them down. At the very least, it would have taken you long enough for them to get away clean."

"Huh." That actually made Tony feel a little better, interestingly enough. "I'm kind of glad they took some precautions, but it doesn't change the fact that he trusted me to have a way to get in touch with him at all. I could have easily set up a fake call for help and had him captured on arrival."

"He knew you'd never do that."

"Yeah," Tony groaned and stood up. They probably had a lot of things they needed to do now, people to contact, statements to work out… his mind started trying to come up with a list to organize all the details. Shit, how did one go about reversing a declaration of death?

Rhodey and Happy stood as well. "I'll contact the hero crowd," Rhodey offered. "Get everyone out here in a few days. We can't tell them over the phone, and we can't let them find out through anyone else."

Tony nodded stoically, grateful for Rhodey's offer. Not that he could really contact anyone without a whole shitload of questions but he appreciated his friend making the overture all the same.

They separated in silence, Rhodey going to do exactly what he said, Happy moving to the kitchen to start cleaning up the remains of the uneaten breakfast, and Tony headed upstairs to see if his wife needed any help.

He felt completely drained just from telling the people here about what had happened, the thought of telling everyone else made him feel like passing out. How did he begin to honor this kind of sacrifice? How did he help his little girl get over losing yet another person in her life?

Tony stopped in the doorway and watched Pepper soothe their daughter's heavy sobs into quieter hiccups and sniffles. He felt like an intruder in his own home. Pepper looked up, eyes glassy, expression helpless. She felt just as lost as he did.

Morgan shuddered and peeked out around her mom's protective embrace. Tony braced himself to for a hateful glare and accusing words. But Morgan's sorrowful stare just latched onto his own.

"Daddy," she whispered, reaching for him as the sobs started anew.

Tony moved forward quickly, settling on her other side. One hand rested comfortably on Morgan's small arm, while the other snaked around Pepper's back, pulling them both closer.

_This was how he did it_, his mind offered as he watched Morgan's eyes droop, tiredness overwhelming the sadness for now, even though it was only midmorning and Morgan had only been awake for a couple hours. _This was how he lived with it_. Honor, duty, sacrifice – core tenets of the United States Army. Principles and beliefs that Steve Rogers had embodied wholeheartedly, a born soldier before he had ever become a Captain.

It didn't need to be on as grand a scale as Captain America, but Tony could strive to reach those ideals every day here with his own family. Steve had given his life so that Tony could have a lifetime of moments like this, comforting his daughter, tucking her in, being there to wipe away the tears or share in her joys.

The very least Tony owed the guy was to not fuck it up. He had never really told Steve that he considered the chronologically older but biologically younger man a brother. He had never told him that he was so, _so _grateful for everything the man had done for him, for Pepper and Morgan. He never told Steve that it was OK to feel out of touch with the world around him, and it didn't make him any less valued or loved. He truly regretted never telling Steve any of the hundreds of things he wished he had, now that he no longer had the chance. Because Steve was his family, and he _thought_ the man had known that, but he had never actually said the words. The world might mourn Captain America – and Tony really didn't hold out much hope that Barnes would actually agree with his and Rhodey's crazy idea – but he would forever miss Steve Rogers, the guy who never backed down from a fight, who so stupidly clung to his ideals and beliefs even when logic dictated that he should give up, and then somehow always seemed to be right in the end. It annoyed Tony to no end, but it was secretly something he really admired about the guy.

(But God damn it sometimes he really just wanted to punch the asshole in his perfect teeth).

_Please review and let me know what you think! _

_Next up in the series: The Avengers gather once more to learn the good and bad news._


	3. Beyond The Illusion

**Title: Beyond The Illusion**

**Summary: The call went out across the globe and to the far reaches of the universe. Now that Morgan has been told, there's one more thing Tony needs to do. Avengers assemble once more to hear the good and bad news.**

The call went out across the globe and to the far reaches of the universe. Those that couldn't make it physically to the large cabin by the lake that they had just visited a few weeks earlier called in remotely, their holographic images projected for the rest to see in the far corner of the cozy living room.

Sam had returned from DC, where he had been staying with his family – his sister had survived the snap, but her husband and their parents had been just as dusted as he himself had been. They had all enjoyed a tearful reunion, as even before the decimation it had been several years since he had been able to see them, being a fugitive superhero and all.

Scott arrived with a sullen expression, so out of character for him but he hadn't wanted to leave Cassie; Rhodey's message had sounded urgent and serious though, so he knew he had to be there. Hope had come with him.

Peter was back too, with May. She hadn't received an official request from Rhodey, but they had been planning to come visit this weekend anyway and she figured if there was some big hero meeting she hadn't gotten the memo for, they could tell her to leave if they didn't want her there.

Bruce and Wanda arrived at nearly the same time, despite coming from different continents – Wanda had disappeared to Eastern Europe after Tony's funeral, while Bruce had been on his way to South America when he had gotten the call. He had left right after Steve's sacrifice and Tony's unexpected reappearance, wanting to take some time for himself to process, and there were many countries around the world who could use some additional strength to help them sort things out after the sudden reappearance of so many people.

Clint arrived at nearly the last minute, wanting to leave his family about as much as Scott had wanted to leave Cassie, but he couldn't ignore Rhodey's call, even if a large part of him wanted to hit the snooze button. They had just saved the universe at such a heavy cost, couldn't the next crisis wait?

Wong and Strange arrived from the Sanctum in Manhattan, stepping through a glowing red circle that barely phased anyone anymore.

Fury and Hill were there too, glad to be included in whatever it was – it was more than they had gotten before Thanos' snap, with Fury barely having time to call Danvers for help before being dusted, though at least Maria could understand that the Avengers had been left slightly out of the loop with all things SHIELD, so maybe it made sense why they hadn't reached out when Thanos' army had arrived on Earth.

Even Valkyrie was there, arriving from the Asgardian settlement in Norway on a Pegasus, a bottle of whiskey in one hand and ready with a hearty glare for any who looked her way. And several concealed weapons on hand if anyone tried to chastise her over the dangers of drinking and flying. No one did.

The hologram corner was full too, with the Guardians calling in from space – Quill, Drax, Nebula, Mantis, Rocket, Groot, and Thor had paused their search for Gamora who had disappeared shortly after the final battle to answer Rhodey's request for a group meeting, and were all clustered around the small camera, appearing very squashed together in the holographic image at the cabin on Earth.

The Wakandans had called in as well, too busy rebuilding their own country and helping out their neighbors to make the trip across the ocean. T'Challa, Shuri, and Okoye were all visible in glowing blue light.

Carol Danvers' image joined them. She had disappeared across the universe after the funeral too, choosing to venture out and help as many other planets as she could, other worlds that were also dealing with the sudden return of half their population.

By the time they were all assembled, the living room was very crowded – Bruce took up a significant amount of space all on his own – though the absence of several key players was clear. Tony. Natasha. The grief would be a long time fading for them. The new arrivals couldn't help but look questionably at those who had met them on their arrival: Rhodey, Pepper, and Bucky. Happy had taken Morgan out for the day so that she wouldn't have to hear it all again and her parents could deal with telling the rest of the group what had happened.

Tony himself was waiting out of sight until Rhodey had a chance to explain. He had offered to do all the talking so that Bucky wouldn't have to, though when Bruce had arrived he understood what this gathering was about and offered to help, much to Rhodey's relief. It was hard enough to hear it, let alone having to think about telling others.

When it looked like everyone was present, physically or virtually, Rhodey swallowed harshly and forced himself to step forward. "Thanks for coming, everyone." Any small side conversations immediately died.

"Please tell me the world isn't ending again," Quill piped up from his hologram. "I mean seriously, we just saved the universe, can't the bad guys take, like a month off?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with the guy with the weird hero name that's probably compensating for something on this one," Clint added. "If any more bad guys show up, I quit."

Quill glared at Clint for the cheap shot about his name. A few weary chuckles sounded from around the room, but Rhodey didn't smile.

T'Challa frowned from his hologram, observing the room around him. While it was possible that he was missing a corner or two due to the camera angle, there was someone absent and he doubted in any situation that Steve would be lurking in a hidden corner. "Colonel Rhodes, where is Captain Rogers?" he asked curiously.

Any chuckles died immediately, some in the room perhaps realizing for the first time just what was wrong with this scenario. Where was their leader? Despite the split, despite the fallout of the Accords and Captain America spending the two years before Thanos' arrival as a fugitive on the run, and despite and how little or well some of these people had known him, there was one thing they were all certain of: Steve was in charge. So why had it been Rhodey to contact them?

Rhodey flinched, throwing a careful look at Bucky before glancing at Bruce and Sam, the only two who didn't look confused. "That's why you're all here," he admitted softly. "Steve… well, something happened."

Thor furrowed his brow, leaning forward and peering intently through the camera to the group several planets away. "I thought the Captain was going to return the stones and my hammer? Has there been a problem?"

"You could say that," Bucky muttered, but the words were only caught by those closest to him – Rhodey and Pepper. Pepper rested a hand gently on his arm, but didn't say anything.

Bruce stepped forward, taking over for Rhodey, who looked incredibly relieved. "He did," the Hulk/Bruce reassured the crowd. "We finished the smaller time machine a few days ago, and he went back to return the stones. Everything worked the way it was supposed to…" Hulk shook his head, "until he got to his last stop. Vormir."

Clint flinched, remembering the minutes he had spent on that godforsaken planet. "What happened there?" he asked, voice rough.

Bruce sighed. "Well, we think he _could_ have just dropped the stone off and left, but…"

"But he had to be a self-sacrificing idiot and do something heroic and stupid instead."

Tony's sudden entrance drew more than one cry and more than one weapon leveled at the presumed dead man.

"Calm down!" Rhodey's commanding voice sounded over the din. "Put your weapons away and let us explain." He glared at Tony. "You were supposed to wait."

Tony shrugged nonchalantly and took a seat next to Pepper. "You were drawing it out too long. I got bored."

"Yeah, that's really Tony," Clint declared, putting his bow down and settling back into his seat. No one else could replicate the man's lack of patience and propensity for dramatics in quite the same way.

"What the hell?" Quill asked incredulously.

Next to him, Rocket also chimed in. "I mean, it's cool that you're not dead and all, but what a waste of a perfectly good funeral."

A few people threw glares at the racoon, but most looked too curious themselves to bother scolding him. With a painful grimace, Quill couldn't help but think that if she had been there, it would have been Gamora's role to offer up a reprimand to the wisecracking racoon.

Bruce cleared his throat, calling all attention back to him. He smiled softly at Rhodey, and the Colonel agreeably sat down, letting the man who had actually been there when Steve had disappeared and Tony returned continue. "Honestly we don't know all the facts," he admitted. "Here's what we do know: Steve went to the past to return the stones. He got to Vormir, and we figure, the stone offered him an exchange. A soul for a soul. He decided to send Tony back and take his place instead."

"What?!" Clint shot to his feet again. "That Red Skull guy said it was permanent. And Tony didn't even die that way!"

Tony bit his lip. "He wouldn't have brought back Natasha, Clint," he said softly, understanding the man's anger. "I'm sure he wanted to, but he would have respected her choice to get you the stone."

"But he didn't respect your choice to use them all together?" Clint shot back with a glare.

Tony shrugged. "Can't say I'm too pleased at the guy, but I think he weighed the pros and cons and decided that… certain people," he shot a look at Pepper, thinking about his daughter currently out eating ice cream with her Uncle Happy, "needed me more. Stubborn asshole. Seriously, crashing planes deliberately into the Artic, ordering people to shoot down helicarriers while he's still on board, the guy has absolutely no sense of self preservation. Had. Damn it." He sat back in his seat, avoiding all the looks shot his way.

"So… Captain America is dead?" Scott asked hesitantly, unable to wrap his head around this whole situation.

"No," Bucky spoke for the first time, glaring at the crowd. Slowly, they all turned to look at him. "Steve is dead. Steve made this choice, knowing that it was the right one for him, and trusting that we wouldn't let the universe go to shit without him. Captain America is the symbol. Captain America didn't make this decision, Steve Rogers did."

Only a few people really seemed to understand – Tony, Bruce, Sam. But Captain America _was_ a symbol. The pinnacle of truth and justice who protected his country from all the evils of the world. Steve Rogers had been a man. A flawed man who always strove to do what was right and sometimes failed more than he helped, but who never stopped fighting. Even when he was so exhausted he could barely see straight, he always got back up. He never stopped believing that people could be better, could _do_ better. And he would give every last breath to allow them that chance.

"We just needed to tell you all in person," Rhodey chimed back in, expression grave. "We'll have to make some sort of announcement at some point, tell the people who need to know, but you all deserved to hear it first."

"I also found a place to rebuild the Compound," Tony informed them, wanting to end on a slightly less depressing note. "It'll take a while to fix up, but we've got another old storage facility in Pennsylvania. I'll need to turn it into a decent friendly gathering place for all things superhero, but I'll let you know when it's finished and you'll all be welcome any time." He glanced at the SHIELD duo in the far corner and narrowed his gaze slightly. "Maybe not you."

Fury just glared back. Maria still seemed to be processing what they had just learned, and didn't react.

The group began to disperse now that the news had been shared. The Guardians winked out first, Carol following a few moments later after sharing her condolences and saying good bye to Fury. Though she hadn't known Steve nearly as long as some of these people, she had come to like the other superhero Captain quite a lot over the last five years. They spoke semi-regularly as Steve and Natasha tried to keep some semblance of order on Earth while she worked with what was left of the Guardians to help out in the rest of the universe, and she truly considered him to be a good friend by now. She couldn't understand what the loss of Captain America might do to the Earth in the same way those Earth-bound superheroes would, but she knew Steve well enough to know that any world without Steve Rogers in it would be a sad one.

T'Challa hung around a few minutes more, speaking quietly with Bucky before the king cut the connection. He made the former assassin promise to visit Wakanda soon, and promised to check in regularly as well. Though Bucky had spent a good deal of his time there in cryo, he and the king had become friends after they had removed the HYDRA programming. T'Challa was worried about what Steve's loss would do to the man, who had clung so hard to the thought of his best friend through the deprogramming, who had known so little in this current time beyond pain, sadness, and the knowledge that somewhere out there was Steve Rogers, who was also thinking about him.

Those who had made the trip in person broke into smaller groups, Bruce hanging back to talk to Tony while Wanda and Sam wandered outside.

In silence, they made their way down towards the lake where Sam had only a few weeks earlier watched Steve try to come to grips with a future that didn't include Tony. Now, they would all have to readjust and learn to live without _him_. Wanda took a seat on a bench by the water, while Falcon hung back slightly. He and Wanda had gotten to know each other much better during their years on the run, and he knew that the young woman had grown far closer to Steve than either of them had probably thought possible. But Steve had saved her from Ultron and her own descent to villain, offered her a family when she had just lost her entire world, and saved her from the Raft and the torturous life she had thought would be her new normal. Perhaps most importantly to her, he had known about her and Vision and yet still trusted her to make her own decisions and not put herself and the rest of them in danger. And until she and Vision had gone dark that weekend in Edinburgh, she hadn't let him down.

Steve's 'I'm disappointed in you' look was incredibly hard to witness, even when it _wasn't _directed at her. When they had picked her and Vision up, she had tried to plead her case but still, the idea of disappointing a man she secretly thought of as an older brother filled her with shame. She hadn't had a chance to apologize before Thanos, and then suddenly she was gone.

And now she was back, but Vision wasn't. Natasha wasn't. Stark wasn't and then he was, but only because Steve wasn't. Wanda secretly didn't think the trade was really that fair. She didn't want to say it, but she'd much rather have Steve than the man who had seen them all thrown in the Raft and probably hadn't had second thoughts about it. She wondered if he condoned what those assholes had done to her in that prison. If he knew. If he cared.

She wanted Steve. She wanted her older brother to sit next to her, gather her in his arms, and tell her that whatever happened, they'd get through it together.

A heavy weight settled down next to her, and the Scarlet Witch let herself imagine just for a moment, that she was getting what she wanted.

But it was Sam who sat on the bench beside her, and Wanda forced herself to abandon those foolish dreams. Steve was gone. He was never coming back.

"I miss him," she whispered, looking out at the steady water in front of them. "I was so eager to leave after the funeral, I just wanted to be by myself for a little while, but I wasn't planning to stay gone forever. I never got to say goodbye."

Sam rested his hands on the bench and watched the water as well. "He knew you needed time," he said quietly. "He knew you needed to grieve."

Wanda sniffed and looked down. "I never told him how much I appreciated all he did for me. He gave me so much, and I…"

Sam shook his head, looking over at the distraught woman. "It was never a competition, Wanda. He never expected anything in return. He cared about you, and he wanted to give you the best life possible. I'll admit that wasn't so easy to do while a wanted fugitive, but he did his best."

Wanda smiled tearfully. "He never told me off for continuing to see Viz, even though it was dangerous for everyone. Stark could have followed us and found you all. We were so foolish."

"You liked him. You needed him in your life. Steve understood that." Sam was absolutely positive of this.

Wanda nodded, but didn't look like it made her feel any better. It probably didn't.

"Why do I feel like we all took the guy for granted?" A new voice interrupted them, and both turned to see Clint standing behind them, bow slung over one shoulder and hands clenched in his pockets.

Sam shrugged. "I think the whole world took Captain America for granted," he admitted, "and we were all too stupid to realize that we followed along."

Wanda looked confused, but Clint nodded agreeably. "You never think that you won't get another chance, and sometimes you just don't." He shrugged. "People always saw Captain America as this figurehead, and when he came out of the ice, I think he played along somewhat. For a little while at least. They never saw him as a real person, he was always a superhero. But I remember a guy just a few weeks out of a nearly seventy-year long sleep who trusted a recently brainwashed agent to have his back."

"Or a guy he'd had exactly one conversation with when the world was going to hell and he didn't know where to turn," Sam mused, nodding in understanding of Clint's general surprise that Steve had trusted him so completely even after everything he had done under Loki's control.

Clint inclined his head, a small smile on his lips. "He played along as the dutiful hero, and then helicarriers were falling from the sky and my friends were trying to kill me because spoiler alert: they weren't actually friends." Clint grimaced. "It took me three weeks to get back home from Portugal after I had to kill my exfil that day. No idea who to trust or what the hell was going on. And then suddenly there's Nat telling me that SHIELD isn't SHIELD, Fury's dead but not actually dead, and Cap's in the hospital because his dead friend from the forties is actually a not-so-dead Russian assassin. HYDRA assassin. She was a little iffy on the specifics, but I think he was both?" Clint snorted. "Doesn't anyone in this world stay dead anymore?"

Sam looked guilty. They had taken down HYDRA sure, but he had never really thought about what it might have been like for agents all around the world. How many hadn't been able to fight back, too surprised at their friends trying to kill them to react in time?

Clint shook his head. "And again, there was Captain America for the world to see, taking down HYDRA for the second time. People always seem to take for granted that someone will be there to save the day, and more often than not, that someone they expect to see is Captain America. Until the Accords, then he was just public enemy number one."

"Apparently the Accords are toast?" Sam had missed it, but Clint had been around the last five years, so he had to know. "Rhodey said Steve and Tony worked their shit out years ago, and without Ross to spearhead the whole thing, countries were pulling out left and right. They all needed so much help just surviving, no one really cared about enhanced individuals or regular humans, just that they could offer assistance."

"Still," Clint frowned. "People always expect Captain America to be there. We were just as bad as the rest. But I think somewhere along the way, Steve just got tired of it. Tired of being used for what he was, and nobody seeing the real human underneath. I remember Nat complaining that he would never take her up on those offers to set him up. He never really learned how to live beyond the Avengers, did he?"

Wanda looked even more upset, but Sam nodded readily enough. Clint sighed. "Tony often teased him about being a man out of time, but it was true. He tried to live in this world, but I don't think he was ever comfortable with it. He missed his own home too much."

"I should have told him that he was my family," Wanda whispered, sniffing sadly. "I never saw any of that, but I could have told him."

"It's not your fault hon," Clint assured the young woman. "Steve knew, I'm sure of it. He had family here, and he was aware of that, but sometimes, it just isn't enough."

"That's the thing about depression," Sam mused, shaking his head, "it doesn't care who you are or how many good or bad things you've got going on in your life, it just takes, indiscriminately." Clint and Wanda looked at him, surprised. Sam shrugged. "You were skirting around it, Barton. No SHIELD psychologist would ever have diagnosed Captain America with depression, even if he had let them see anything worth worrying about, but I could see flashes over the years. I asked him once what made him happy, and he honestly couldn't answer me." He shook himself off and stood up. "We can continue to sit around and mope over what he did, or we can choose to be grateful for the time we knew him, and honor the sacrifices he made. It wasn't just about giving Morgan her father back and we all know it. Steve was tired. I'm sure the last five years only made it worse, but he wanted to finally rest, so there's no use being angry or upset. Right?"

Clint looked at him appraisingly. He had only really worked with Sam for a short time during the whole Accords fiasco, but he really liked the man's steady calm and certainty. "Sounds about right." He looked over at Wanda and was rewarded with her shaky nod. "How about you come back to the farm with me for a while?" he asked gently. "Laura would love to finally meet you officially, and you could probably use some stability." Though Laura and the kids had joined Clint for Tony's funeral a couple weeks ago, they hadn't really been introduced to any of the mourners beyond those they already knew, and Wanda had disappeared pretty quickly after the gathering dispersed.

Wanda looked a little hesitant, but nodded again, and the trio began heading back towards the house to say their goodbyes before departing.

**XXX**

Steve Rogers and Peter Parker had had exactly one direct conversation in all the time they had known each other and known about each other. _He did it for you_. Peter remembered those words so clearly, spoken in Steve's soft but reassuring undertone as the duo watched the funeral break up and many guests head inside to start drinking. Steve had been so confident and positive. Tony had saved the whole universe but he had done it for precisely three reasons: Peter, Pepper, and Morgan. _He did it for you_.

And then suddenly everything had changed. Tony was back, and Peter was so happy about that that he hadn't asked any questions. He and May had left after one night, promising to return for the weekend to spend more time together, only to show up to a superhero pow-wow and learn that surprise! Tony's back but he's only here because Captain America once more made the sacrifice play.

Peter didn't know how to feel about that; he was ecstatic to have Tony back, but looking around the room of heroes, he could see that the feelings on the subject were mixed – it's not like anyone actually looked like they'd rather have Steve here than Tony (well, the Scarlet Witch girl that Peter remembered fighting on Cap's team a few years ago seemed a little upset, but she hid it well) but no one looked too thrilled to discover what it had cost them all.

And so here they were, the superhero gathering had broken up, and Peter and May were the only ones left. Well, Peter was pretty sure Cap's scary assassin friend was still lurking around, but he hadn't seen the man since the meeting had ended hours earlier. Pepper was busy with Rhodey in the kitchen, getting dinner ready, and Peter had wandered out onto the porch to watch the sun set.

A soft creak of the boards beneath their feet, and Tony joined the young hero. After a few minutes of silence, the older man sighed and then inexplicably repeated the same words Steve had once spoken to him just a few short yards away; and somehow, they rang even more hollow now than Steve's empty condolences after the funeral. _He did it for you_.

Peter had never asked anyone to die for him.

Tony rested his hands on the solid wood ledge in front of him, leaning against the porch enclosure wearily. "I'm glad to be back, kid, don't get me wrong. But the fact that he had to give his life to make it happen just doesn't sit right with me. But I know exactly why he did it, and it was you. It was Pepper, Morgan, everyone else he thought cared more for me than they did for him – or at least, that's probably the way he saw it. Stubborn fool couldn't understand that people in this century cared about him just as much. So yeah, it blows, but I'm grateful that I get to do this here, with you, again."

"I just feel…" Peter struggled to put into words what it was he was feeling. "Kind of guilty I guess? I mean, Captain America is super important and all, even though I guess I kind of missed the part where he's no longer a criminal but that's cool, really happy about that. He seemed cool even if we were fighting against each other at that airport. But I really missed you, and I'm so thrilled that you're back."

Tony grimaced. "There's plenty of guilt to go around, kid. Don't feel bad because you're happy. Steve would never want that."

"Steve would be happy that you're so happy."

The quiet voice interrupted them from the yard in front of the porch, and they watched as Bucky silently made his way up the stairs to join them, his footsteps barely registering on the creaky wooden boards beneath his feet. His expression was unreadable, but he sounded confident in what he was saying. "That's why he did it, kid. Because he knew that you would be happier with Stark and not him."

"But I don't –"

Peter didn't even manage to get the whole sentence out, before Tony interrupted him. "It's not a recrimination, Pete. Barnes isn't blaming you, and he's not trying to make you feel bad." He glared at Barnes for the implication.

Bucky nodded immediately. "Stark's right. Steve cared more for everyone else's feelings, his own were never important. Not trying to blame you, kid. Don't pay attention to me, I spent seventy years as a deadly assassin having my memory wiped over and over. What do I know?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "You're going to bring up the memory wiping to get out of everything, aren't you."

Bucky didn't deign to reply, but there was a decided twinkle in his eye that told Tony that he was starting to understand the former assassin far better than he had thought possible.

With the air of someone deliberately deciding that any further discussion on the subject would be beneath him, Tony returned to the conversation at hand. "I'm really sorry you never got to know the Steve we did," he said regretfully. "I wish I hadn't dragged you into that mess with the Accords, I wish we had been able to introduce you to the Avengers from years ago. He was a genuinely good man who would never think of himself, only how he could help others."

Peter smiled weakly. "Sounds about right."

Bucky shook his head slightly. "Not because he was Captain America, that's just the kind of asshole Steve was." Tony threw him another glare for swearing in front of the kid, but he didn't care. He just wanted people to understand what it did when they lumped Steve in with that stupid moniker. "Steve fit the role perfectly because he honestly believed that it was his responsibility to help save everyone except himself, but that wasn't because of the stupid serum or the shield. That was who Steve was even before the fucking serum was a twinkle in Erskine and Stark Senior's eyes."

Peter gulped. "I'm sorry, Mr… Winter Soldier sir?"

Tony snorted and Bucky winced. "Barnes, kid. Just Barnes."

"Not Bucky?" It still sounded so wrong for the name to even come out of Tony's mouth, but he was getting more used to Morgan's innocent 'Uncle Bucky' even if he would never use the name himself.

Bucky's glare said it all. He still replied though. "If you call me that I will shove my metal arm down your throat and rip your intestines out. There's exactly one person in this universe anymore who's allowed to use that name, Stark, and she might share your last name but she's way cuter and way more likable than you." Tony tried not to laugh, considering he agreed wholeheartedly. Bucky's expression softened and grew more pained as his eyes glazed over slightly. "Bucky was Steve's. I'll let Morgan have him now, but Bucky was Steve's right hand, as kids on the streets of Brooklyn and through a war that lost far more than it gained. I'm not him without Steve."

Silence greeted that statement, neither Tony nor Peter wanting to poke those issues with a ten foot pole.

Bucky shook himself off and focused on Tony. "I'll do it." Tony frowned, confused, and Bucky elaborated. "What we talked about a few days ago. Tell Rhodes I'm in. I'll talk to T'Challa about a new shield. And we definitely need a new outfit. I'm not all that into the stars and stripes."

Tony snorted. "You should have seen the outfit they made him wear when he first came out of the ice. Spandex, dude."

"Oh God, I saw pictures of that fight," Peter chimed in, grinning. "I mean, it was awesome and all, but man that outfit."

Tony nodded, chuckling. "Trust me, the stealth suit was a serious upgrade. But we'll talk about that later. Thanks, Barnes. I know what we're asking you to do, and we really appreciate it."

Bucky shrugged. Peter, recognizing what they must be talking about – and understanding to a smaller degree why they apparently thought it was necessary to have Captain America live on even though Steve Rogers was gone – stayed silent.

"I made a promise to myself a few days ago that I'd help protect the world since the punk would no longer be around to do his part. I thought once that I could just turn it off – spent months living as a goat herder in Wakanda," he ignored Tony's snort and Peter's questionable eyebrow raise, "and all I learned is that it doesn't matter how much I wanted it to be true, I'm just as wired for a fight as Steve was. He never could learn to live without a war, and neither can I. I need to be useful, Stark. I need to make up for the horrible things I've done. I want to help."

Tony rolled his eyes. "I thought we established that it wasn't you, it was HYDRA." He continued before Bucky had a chance to say anything, "But I get it, and I know I'll be glad to have you out there protecting the world. Maybe I'll even join in sometime."

Bucky raised an eyebrow. "I thought you'd retired. Settled down with your wife and kid to live the apple pie life."

Tony grimaced. "Turns out I'm not so great at letting go either. Made it five years though, longer than I thought I would." He actually sounded proud about that fact. Bucky almost laughed. Tony shrugged. "Pepper knew what she married. She may not have liked my extracurricular activities, but she knew it was a part of me. God, I was actually grateful when Steve came to get me after Scott reappeared with this crazy time travel plan." He looked around at the scene in front of him. "I mean, lakes are cool and all, but all day every day? I'm going out of my mind, man. I need some action."

Bucky snorted, understanding completely.

"So…" the older heroes turned to the teenager, who looked entirely amused by the awkward silence he had just created. "Crime fighting team up? Coordinating outfits, guys, I'm totally seeing it!" He grinned. "We can be like the Incredibles and wear a huge A on our chest. Oh but then I'd have to give up the Spidey suit, and I kind of like the Spidey suit."

"I thought I told you no more pop culture references," Tony cut him off, knowing that once he really got going there'd be no way to get a word in. "How about we just call you if we need you and in the meantime you go back to being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man – you know, since you still have a neighborhood to save."

Peter beamed, remembering their conversation on that flying donut all those years ago – though for him it was only a few weeks, to be honest. "So we're just going full-on Justice League then. Only without the general sucky-ness and gloom. Got it."

"Sure kid, whatever." Tony rolled his eyes and shot Bucky a look that said 'ignore him', which the former assassin thankfully chose to do.

Pepper's call interrupted them as she informed all the cabin's inhabitants that dinner was ready, so the trio headed inside without delay.

It wouldn't be easy, but eventually, they would manage to rebuild the Avengers. They'd figure out whatever new dynamics they needed to, and they'd go back to being the superhero team the world had come to know and trust – for the most part (when they weren't being told that superheroes were responsible for all their problems – thankfully there was a lot less of that without Ross in any position of authority). Things would never be the same as they were, but they would still have Iron Man. They'd have Spider-Man. A whole mess of other heroes ready to jump in and help out if needed.

And they'd have Captain America. Bucky wouldn't be the same Cap they were used to – red, white, and blue really wasn't his style – but he knew the weight of that shield, he had seen the way Steve struggled to hold it up at times. He would honor that legacy. He'd even consent to fighting alongside Stark if that's what it took. He could do this. He would do this. He'd probably never stop missing Steve, but he would honor what the man had built here.

And God damn it, Bucky vowed that he didn't care what death looked like, he_ would_ find that punk eventually and kill him all over again.

_Yeah, I pulled DC into it. Sue me (please don't, I'm broke)._


	4. Soaring Ever Higher

**Title: Soaring Ever Higher**

**Summary: It was a tradition. A weird Stark family tradition. Every night at dinner, Morgan had her own place setting. Pepper and Tony had their own plates. And so did Steve. A single plate sat empty next to Morgan night after night. Snapshot through the years. Even though Steve is no longer physically around, that doesn't mean he's not still a part of their family.**

_A few notes: The lake house – I did a quick Google search, and apparently you can actually rent the lake house from Endgame on AirBnB. The house itself is in Georgia, not sure where it was supposed to be in the movie, but we're making it in Georgia here._

_Concerning ages of the kids – I used Age of Ultron as a reference, and the movie came out in 2015, I figure Laura was at least six months pregnant (though I'm not great at judging those things so I could be very off). So I estimated that Nate was born in 2015, making him three when they were all dusted. When he reappears in this story it's been about a year and a half since the end of Endgame, making him approximately four, maybe almost five when you take out the years he was gone. Morgan was born in 2019, making her four (almost five) at the end of Endgame. _

_Lila and Cooper are harder to estimate. Based on the heights in AoU, it looks like Cooper is older, maybe 10 or so, where Lila looks like she could be 6 or 7, if that. However, at the beginning of Endgame it looks like Lila is around 15. But if AoU takes place around 2015 (based on when the movie comes out), and the end of Infinity War/when she gets dusted is 2018, she should only be three years older… so we're going to fudge some things for the purposes of this story: I'm making Lila the older one because she looks like she's the oldest in Endgame. I'm going to say she was 10/11 in AoU, and 14 in Endgame when she got dusted. For Cooper, I'm going to say he was 8 in Aou and 11 in Endgame._

It started with an innocent question. _Where's Uncle Steve going to sit? _A tearful four-year-old who didn't want to understand that he was gone forever

And her parents were struggling to deal with the loss just as much as their daughter, so they didn't try to argue.

It soon became a tradition. Every night at dinner, Morgan had her own place setting. Pepper and Tony had their own plates. If they had any guests that night – and Happy, Rhodey, and Bucky were all frequent visitors – they each got their own.

And so did Steve. A single plate, framed by fork and knife, sat empty next to Morgan night after night.

The Stark family had abandoned the lake house for more than a nice getaway from time to time, moving back to Manhattan before Morgan's fifth birthday. Many weekends were spent at the new Avengers Compound in rural Pennsylvania, far enough away from civilization to be able to hide any superhero-sized accidents (or the small chemical reaction from one weekend where Tony and Bruce got a little carried away with their experiments – they maintained that no one had been in any danger, but they still had to rebuild the east wing of the Compound and deal with the Wrath of Pepper – Tony sometimes thought he should totally get that trademarked, considering how many times he had provoked that specific look from the woman, but wisely shelved the idea when he considered what else she might do to him if she found out.

No matter what dinner table they sat at though – whether it was on the top levels of Stark Tower in Manhattan (name changed back to its original after the Accords and the Avengers split, and never corrected), the spacious dining room of the Avengers Compound in Pennsylvania, or the cozy eat-in kitchen at the lake house in Georgia – there was always that empty place.

Any guests the Starks had knew better than to ask – and considering most of them knew exactly why the family had developed this odd quirk in the first place, there wasn't much reason to question it anyway.

The reasons changed throughout the years – at first it was Morgan waiting for her uncle to come home, but as she grew older it became more about remembering Steve, keeping him close and making sure that even in death he knew he was still a part of their family.

And for Tony, he never wanted to forget what they had all lost, just so that he could come home. It bothered him, sometimes, that the world would never know the loss of Steve Rogers. Barnes was doing a great job as Captain America, just like they had all asked. But it wasn't the same, and Tony missed Steve's steady calm and unwavering presence every second of every day.

He missed the years they had had in between snaps – sure, it had sucked on the grand scale, but individually, he considered those to be the years where he and Steve truly went from friends to brothers. The years where they became family, not just because they had been thrust together by a pirate in a trench coat to save New York from its first brush with outer space, but because they truly wanted each other to stick around. It wasn't so much about regrouping whenever the world was in danger, but dropping by unexpectedly for dinner, family day trips to the zoo and basking in Morgan's newfound determination to be a penguin when she grew up. Tony tried to explain the logistics of that one to the three-year-old, but Steve had just laughed it off and bought the girl a stuffed penguin from the gift shop on their way out – years later, and she still slept with that stuffed animal every night.

It had only been for five years, but it had felt like a completely different lifetime for Tony. He didn't want to forget that. But as the months went by, Tony felt more and more like he was grasping at straws, struggling not to let the moments slip away.

That empty place setting grounded him. They never even thought about it anymore, pulling out the extra plate routinely every night as they set the table.

Night after night, and Tony didn't even realize how ingrained it was into their routine until the first time the Bartons all visited the Compound for the weekend.

Clint had been coming by with more frequency as the weeks passed. He enjoyed retired life, but just like Tony and Bucky, he had never felt completely comfortable leaving it all behind. He had consoled himself for a few years with teaching his kids how to shoot and driving Laura nuts by renovating the entire farmhouse, but it just wasn't the same. He had lasted approximately six months after Tony's return and just five weeks after the billionaire announced the new Avengers Compound open and ready for inhabitants before he was tagging along with Wanda, who had only planned on staying with the Bartons for a short while, but it had turned into months and now she was loathe to ever leave. Laura accepted her unconditionally into the family, and Lila loved having another girl around and had latched onto the Scarlet Witch as an older sister almost immediately.

Wanda had traveled out to the Compound every weekend since it had been retrofitted from the old storage facility it used to be. Bucky seemed to be the only person living in the Compound full time, but he never had time to feel lonely since the others made it a point to stop by as much as possible. Thanks to Tony and Stark Industries, they all had access to super-fast quinjets and even Scott and Hope could make the trip from California in just a couple hours. Bruce was using the Compound as a home base, but he made frequent trips out that could last days at a time. Sam was talking about moving out to Pennsylvania full time soon, so that he could be there with Bucky and there were VA's everywhere that could always use some help – and thanks to Tony's generosity he didn't even need to worry about whether or not they paid – but he hadn't quite worked out how to tell his parents yet; they still panicked if he didn't come over for dinner two nights in a row.

Weekends were when they really did all their training. It wasn't uncommon to see some superhero version of capture the flag or tag or hide and go seek taking place on the Compound's spacious grounds on a Saturday morning, or an overly crowded living room hosting Avengers movie nights that evening. Most of them tried to come out every weekend, and only rarely did any of them miss more than one weekend a month. They had a new team to train, and they needed to understand each other's moves just as easily as the original Avengers had come to do all those years ago.

Every now and then some of the group would bring a tagalong. Scott brought Cassie whenever the teenager was free – which was far more often than he had any right to expect, but she had missed her dad. Pepper and Morgan joined Tony at the Compound at least two weekends a month, often more, and Sam had even brought his sister out to meet everyone. Peter's 'Guy in the Chair' Ned tagged along as often as Peter let him, and the teenaged superhero even started bringing MJ with him after a couple months, now that they were officially dating and he had told her about his alter ego (not that he had apparently needed to say anything, she had known since he ditched their team at the decathlon in DC and then Spider-Man had saved them at the Washington Monument years earlier).

Clint was far less eager to reintroduce his family to the hero side of his life – they had met the Avengers years ago during the whole Ultron mess, but he had been careful to keep them as separate as possible other than that. Case in point, Tony knew about them and then inadvertently told everyone on the Raft and by extension, Ross. Clint had kept them off the radar for years, and because of the fucking Accords and Tony's guilt complex, Clint had been forced to put his address and relations on that stupid Registry. Nothing was one hundred percent secure, especially not an electronic list that could tell anyone the names and locations of every mutant or enhanced individual in the world – and they had proved him right laughingly quickly. It had only been a matter of months before that 'humans first' terrorist group the Watchdogs got a hold of the list and start picking off the people on it.

So yeah, Clint was very reticent to re-introduce his family to that world. But Laura knew that no matter how much she wanted her husband to fully retire, it wasn't in his nature to sit back and let others handle the problem, so she better just suck it up and get on board with embracing the whole extended superhero family. So she pestered him and threatened him until almost a year after he had first started joining Wanda on her weekend trips, he finally agreed to let the rest of them come.

Lila and Cooper loved joining the Avengers in capture the flag while Laura followed Pepper inside with four-year-old Nate, trusting that the heroes wouldn't harm the older kids, and both of them were thrilled to practice their shooting skills in a more realistic setting than shooting at a nonmoving target in their backyard.

What followed was an exhausting day for heroes, before they all regrouped later that evening for dinner and a movie. Takeout for the evening was Chinese – Laura had offered to cook but Pepper assured her that it was just as much a tradition as the movie night. Once a week, they all gathered together, and the winning team would yell at each other for ten minutes over which cuisine they would order for dinner and which movie they would choose to watch that night. Those were the rules: winning team got to pick the food and the movie.

(At least, that's the way it was supposed to work. If Tony was on the winning team more often than not whatever decision was made would be usurped by Morgan declaring that they would be eating Chinese and watching the Lord of the Rings. Tony had a weird kid – what six-year-old wanted orcs instead of mermaids or talking lions?)

And so there they were, sprawled across every livable surface in the communal living room, filling up each couch and most of the floor as well. Morgan was sitting on a small loveseat off to one side, her mom in front of her scooping out veggie fried rice onto her plate, when they were interrupted.

"That's Uncle Steve's seat," Morgan's declaration startled Pepper, and she looked over to see Nate attempting to climb onto the loveseat next to the girl.

She opened her mouth to tell Morgan that they would set another place aside for Uncle Steve and to let Nate sit there, but then closed it immediately when the boy just shrugged and abandoned his attempt, moving around Pepper's back so that he could sit on Morgan's other side. Morgan grinned and shifted slightly so that there was enough room for both of them, and Pepper smiled. She set the takeout carton aside and turned around to sit on the floor against the couch, her own plate in her lap.

Around the room, heroes were watching the exchange with interest, but most of them had had dinner with the Starks enough to know by this point that this was their own special routine, and nobody commented. Laura raised an eyebrow from her position next to Clint, but there was also more than a hint of pride in the expression for her son's seeming unconditional acceptance. Clint grasped her hand tightly, and they all turned to the eighty-inch television screen in front of them, as Galadriel's voiceover began to play.

Tony joined Pepper on the floor by their daughter, and the two of them, being the closest to the two youngest members of the extended family, were the only ones to hear their soft conversation over the sound of swords clashing and hobbits celebrating.

"Who's Uncle Steve?" Nate asked curiously, digging into his egg roll with relish.

Morgan smiled back. "Daddy says he's my special guardian angel. Uncle Steve brought daddy back to me. Uncle Bucky says it's because he loved me too much to let it go. I'm not sure what that means, but we set a place for him at the table every night so that he knows he's still part of our family even if we can't see him anymore. He always sits next to me."

Pepper glanced at Tony and reached out to grasp his hand tightly when she saw the way he looked down, grief clouding his gaze. One ear was still trained on the conversation happening above her head though, ready to intervene if Nate said anything to upset Morgan. She knew that Clint and Laura had raised wonderful children, but kids at that age weren't always the most sensitive.

She was surprised then, when Nate stayed silent, appearing to consider what his new friend was saying. After a minute, the four-year-old set down his egg roll and grabbed Morgan's left hand in a greasy embrace. "That's cool. Good thing everyone has two sides, right? I can sit over here."

Morgan beamed, and on the floor below her, Pepper did as well. Even Tony cracked a small smile.

Nate tilted his head to one side. "Can he be my Uncle Steve too?"

"He was your Uncle Steve, kiddo," Clint popped up behind the loveseat, startling everyone in the corner who hadn't realized that the marksman had come over to join them. "You were too young to remember, but he stayed with us a few times, years ago. I'm sorry you'll never get to really know him bud, but he was definitely your Uncle Steve."

"He stayed with you?" Tony asked, turning in his seat and raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

Clint shrugged. "Yeah, he needed a place to crash a sometimes while on the run. They didn't spend all their time together, you know, Sam and Nat split off every now and then too, and Steve would stop by to say hi. Sometimes they came with him, but not always. He was surprisingly good with kids and scary wives who don't take crap from anybody." He grinned at Laura who casually flipped him off, showing that she was also paying attention to the side conversation.

Tony shook his head. "I'm just going to skate over the fact that you had several known fugitives staying with you while you were under house arrest."

"And who's fault was all that?" Laura called out, gaze still focused on the television. Several people turned their way since her question was far louder than the rest of the conversation, but after no explanation was forthcoming, they went back to the movie.

Tony winced and wisely decided not to comment.

Nate looked up at his dad, eyes wide with this new knowledge. Morgan leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. When he looked at her, confused, she smiled. "Since you don't remember Uncle Steve loving you, I wanted to pass that along from him. And if you ever need an Uncle Steve hug, you can go to Uncle Bucky. He says it's his job now to make sure I know how much Uncle Steve loves me, so he can do that for you, too."

From the other side of the room, Bucky turned his gaze towards the kids in the corner, showing that his version of the super soldier serum also included enhanced hearing (not as good as Steve's had been, but he could easily hear a quiet conversation from a few couches away). Seeing both kids staring at him, he offered them a smile and a nod.

The level of cuteness was reaching epic proportions. Rather than burst into ugly tears in the middle of a crowded living room, Tony and Clint decided to return to their respective wives and focus on the movie instead.

Pepper did make sure to take several pictures though – for posterity. A profile of Tony with tears running down his cheeks stayed taped to the inside of the drawer in her nightstand for years. And Morgan and Nate cuddled together on the loveseat, squashed into one half so that the other side could remain empty for Uncle Steve, was framed and hung proudly on the living room wall in the Stark Tower penthouse by the end of the next week (with copies sent to Laura and Clint, of course, who promptly put it up front and center on the mantle in their farmhouse).

**XXX**

It came as a surprise to exactly no one when Nathaniel Barton and Morgan Stark started officially dating at fourteen and fifteen. There was a minor debate over whether their couple name should be Starton or Morganiel, before Morgan and Nate shut all the parents down with a half-baked threat involving arrows in uncomfortable places and laser death rays that made them all regret teaching the kids their superhero ways.

Tony had tried to get them to agree to Bark, but Morgan just leveled a glare at her father that was so _Steve_, the aging superhero was struck momentarily speechless.

Nate and Morgan had been close from that first meeting, and the Barton family began joining Clint, Wanda, and all the others most weekends from that moment on. Lila and Cooper were thrilled, and Nate wanted to spend all day every day with his new best friend. It soon became a challenge just to get the two kids to separate at the end of the weekend.

So yeah, completely not a surprise when Nate and Morgan were caught kissing in the kitchen by Lila nine years later, as the now twenty-four-year-old came in to get another beer. Lila and Cooper – now twenty-two – were both pretty busy in their roles as SHIELD Agents (the organization had been re-established publicly and officially shortly after Tony's return, with Maria Hill taking over since Fury didn't want to announce his status as not quite as dead as people had thought – turns out he might be the only person in their weird superhero sphere of connections that actually enjoyed retirement), but made the effort to join their superhero family at the Compound for a few days at least once a month. It became easier to do after Maria had them listed as Avengers consultants, allowing them to spend time with their extended family under the pretense of work.

Nate's pleas to his sister to keep her mouth shut fell on deaf ears as the woman immediately returned to the living room where the group was watching the original Star Wars trilogy, to announce what she had just seen.

Some good-natured ribbing followed, but no one seemed too shocked, and beyond the slight variance of father threatens new boyfriend where both Tony _and_ Clint told Nate in no uncertain terms what would happen if he broke Morgan's heart, nobody gave the couple too much grief.

Well, when Bucky returned from a mission a few days later (Maria had finally convinced him to officially join SHIELD five years earlier, rather than continue to just show up as Captain America with the rest of the Avengers whenever something big happened), he did take Nate aside and give him double the threats – one from him, and one from Steve. Nate had taken Morgan's suggestion nearly ten years earlier to heart, and Bucky had dutifully expanded his role of keeping Uncle Steve alive to include the boy as well.

And so the years continued to pass. Lila and Cooper rose quickly through the ranks at SHIELD, the Avengers continued to protect, and in time, Morgan and Nate soon graduated high school – Morgan a year earlier than her boyfriend and with half a college degree already completed as she doubled up on the classes, showing the world that she had indeed inherited her father's brains – and began thinking about their own futures. Nate was quick to follow his brother and sister to SHIELD Operations, a path Morgan eventually traced for herself as she completed two PhDs simultaneously and gained instant acceptance to the SHIELD Academy of Science and Technology. Tony very loudly lamented his daughter's decision to join the straight-laced, narrow-minded government tools, but he was secretly incredibly proud, especially since she had no intentions of staying in the lab, and even though her specialties guaranteed that she could spend her entire career in research if she wanted, she was far more interested in applied science. Morgan had built her first Iron Man suit before she had even graduated high school.

Nate proposed to his girlfriend the day she graduated from the Academy and was given her first official SHIELD Agent badge – level six, thanks to all the extracurricular projects she had worked on at the Academy and her unspoken but somewhat official role as a consultant to the Avengers just like all the other kids in the next generation (and it became official as soon as she graduated) – Cassie hadn't joined them at SHIELD, but she was currently working at Stark Industries and often assisted Tony with Avengers upgrades.

Shortly after that, Morgan and Nate moved in together, inhabiting a Stark family townhome in downtown DC after Tony refused to take no for an answer (something they were secretly grateful for – rent in DC was outrageous and being a SHIELD Agent wasn't exactly the most lucrative career). They had been best friends for so long that their progression to couple had been so natural, but this was their first time actually living together – beyond the odd weekend where one of them stayed with the other's family, or weekend getaways during college and SHIELD training.

So it startled Morgan then, when Nate called her down for dinner and she entered the dining room to see three place settings around the table. Her eyes filled with tears, and then suddenly Nate was there, hugging her reassuringly.

"Thank you," she whispered into his shoulder, and his grip tightened.

Nate grinned. "You think I'd forget Uncle Steve?" he asked rhetorically, pulling back so that he could look her in the eye, though his hands stayed locked around her shoulders. "I know some people would probably think it's a weird tradition, but I still remember you telling me that you kept this seat for Uncle Steve so that he would know he was still a part of your family." Morgan sniffed. "A lot's changed since then and we're going to be starting our own family someday, but Uncle Steve will always be a part of it. Right?"

Morgan nodded quickly, biting her lip as she glanced at the table next to them. "Do you think he's watching right now?" she asked, her voice husky as she turned back to her fiancé.

Nate raised an eyebrow, and then grinned and leaned forward to kiss her.

They didn't eat dinner that night.

**XXX**

There was an empty place setting next to the bride's seat at Table One – reserved for the wedding party – when they tied the knot a year later.

Morgan and Nate wouldn't have minded going straight to the courthouse, but they had a very large extended superfamily, and the couple knew the shit storm they would be in for if they didn't invite everyone.

The ceremony took place on the grounds of the Avengers Compound, white tents set up outside to accommodate everyone. Carol was there, taking a vacation from her space travels. The Guardians gave her a lift to Earth. They had found Gamora after a solid year of searching, and though she would never be the Gamora they had lost to Thanos on Vormir, she had soon come to see what the older her must have in this ragtag group of superheroes. Having Nebula there definitely helped ease the process. She even started to warm up to Quill. He was pretty pathetic most of the time, but she couldn't help but find him endearing after enough continued exposure. Falling into a relationship didn't come as easily the second time around, but eventually they found themselves right back where Quill and the other Gamora had been before her death.

Thor had left the Guardians years ago, returning to New Asgard in Norway where he joined Valkyrie in ruling over their people. Both Asgardians attended the wedding together, sharing a flask of Asgardian mead between them as they waited for the ceremony to begin.

Peter was there with his wife MJ, the woman rolling her eyes frequently as her husband fretted over her and her six-month baby bump. May, also invited and sitting on MJ's other side, just watched her nephew with amusement as she shared exasperated looks with her niece-in-law.

The Wakandans arrived a few days early, T'Challa and Shuri holing up with Bucky for hours to discuss new weapons and upgrade ideas for Bucky's vibranium arm. Bucky was on board with most of them, but he really didn't think he needed to have an inflatable raft built into the next version they fit him with.

Maria joined them in their discussion, claiming that as SHIELD Director she should be aware of any changes to Bucky's weaponry – and the arm definitely counted as a weapon, especially after upgrade three when Shuri added a rocket launcher and laser finger. None of them were fooled though, Bucky had been on back-to-back missions for the last six months, and this was the first opportunity Maria had had to actually spend time with her boyfriend since he had left. She didn't even care if they were technically talking about work, just that they were in the same room. Bucky and Maria had been dating for approximately seven years now, with no plans to make a trip down the aisle but it worked for them – if anyone had asked Bucky, he would have said that he could never get married without Steve as his best man. (But Maria's fierce glare whenever the subject was even tentatively broached deterred anyone from pushing the topic any further. Maria understood Bucky's pain completely – she had lost a sister when she was younger, and though the situation wasn't completely the same, she imagined it would be incredibly difficult to have to pick someone else to be her maid of honor). It didn't matter to her what labels they attached to their relationship, as long as they knew where they stood with each other.

Scott and Hope were nearly late, their original commercial flight canceled before Tony sent a quinjet to pick them up. They touched down right before the ceremony began with their young daughter Lizzie in tow. They met Cassie there, as she had come with Tony and Pepper from Manhattan. The young woman had been offered a plus one but chose to leave her new boyfriend at home for now – considering the superhero status of Cassie's extended family, she was hesitant to introduce any new romantic interests to them unless she knew it was going somewhere. So far, she hadn't felt the need with anyone. Scott and Hope had mostly retired from active hero life after Lizzie was born (unless there was a significant need), but Cassie was keeping the family tradition alive as her alter-ego Stinger when she wasn't working at SI, thanks to her very own super suit provided by her step-grandfather, Hank Pym – much to Hope and Janet's consternation. Scott was ecstatic.

Tony had sent Bruce three separate reminders of the date, just in case, as the doctor had been spending much of the last two years traveling around Asia and Northern Africa, working in smaller rural villages to provide medical care, and didn't always have the best idea of what day it actually was. He and Tony had worked out how to 'turn off' Professor Hulk a few years after Tony's return, so Bruce could be slightly less conspicuous unless Hulk was needed for some reason.

Rhodey was there too, of course, as were Happy, Wanda, Sam, Strange, and Wong – the latter two surprised to receive an invitation, but they had worked often enough with the Avengers over the years that Morgan and Nate considered them to be part of the family as well.

Other than the superhero crowd and the couple's immediate families, the rest of the guests were mostly comprised of friends from work. There were a few friends from their high school days, but SHIELD Agents were less likely to freak out over the large contingent of heroes. Several of the Avengers' identities were known to the world by now, and everybody knew who Morgan Stark's father was, but knowing was different from actually being in the presence of.

Nate had his brother Cooper as best man, while Morgan was preceded down the aisle by Lila, who had become as much her sister as Nate's, over the years.

The whole ceremony was a blur but soon enough the officiant was announcing the new Mr. and Mrs. Barton to a tent full of cheers and applause (not that Morgan intended to change her name, it would get confusing to have two Agent Bartons on the same team – she and Nate had been assigned to the same team six months earlier, and Morgan determinedly did not ask if her father had had anything to do with it, after she complained one night about how frustrating it was to constantly have missions on opposite sides of the world).

They all adjourned to the reception tent a short walk away from where the ceremony was held, and Morgan's eyes filled with tears as everyone sat down and she realized there was an extra seat at the top table. She looked questioningly at her father, but Tony shook his head as he sat down leaving the empty seat between him and Morgan, nodding at Nate, who smiled. Morgan remembered their first night in their house a year earlier and leaned over to kiss him.

"He's always here, right?" Nate whispered, and Morgan nodded.

Dinner passed easily, Tony's casual extravagance making itself known through the four-course meal and the chocolate fountain set up in each corner, and then it was time for speeches. Lila and Cooper, as maid of honor and best man, teamed up to give one together, full of sibling embarrassment and laughter.

Clint and Laura said a few words, and then Tony and Pepper – with Pepper doing the job she was quite used to by now and drawing Tony back to the topic at hand when the genius went off on a tangent.

It wasn't always customary for the bride to give a speech, but Morgan felt like she had something to say, so when her father finished his own extravagant toast full of pomp and circumstance, she stood up, fiddling with her champagne glass as she glanced at the empty place setting next to her. Looking back at Nate, she smiled. "When I was six years old, I fell in love. I know, that seems a little weird, but I vividly remember telling you not to sit in an empty seat because I was holding it for my dead uncle, and you just moved over to my other side and told me it was a good thing I had two of them." A few chuckles sounded throughout the tent. Morgan shrugged. "I know all our family has been saying they've seen this coming for years, and we liked to pretend to be annoyed by that, like they were trying to dictate our life or take credit for our decisions, but if I'm being completely honest, I'm not that surprised that they weren't. You gave me my first wedding ring, and my last," she grinned, remembering the fake wedding they had held one afternoon as children, in the playroom at the Compound while a nearly seventeen and fifteen year old Lila and Cooper had been busy aiding their father in bringing the opposing capture the flag team to its knees. Laura and Pepper, their two witnesses to that little ceremony, both laughed at the memory, and Morgan chuckled. "I'm just glad the ring is real this time."

More wedding guests laughed at that, and Morgan let them peter out before bit her lip soberly, eyes drawn to the empty seat yet again before they slid over one seat further and locked in on her father. "When I was four years old, I lost one of the people who meant the most to me in the world. A few weeks later, I suddenly had him back, but only because one of the other most important people chose to make the sacrifice play." Tony grimaced at the word choice, remembering an argument years ago where Steve told him he would never be the one to do that. He also remembered an apology days later where Steve admitted he really didn't know Tony at all and hoped he'd have a chance to get to. Tony had accepted the apology but never said anything about his own harsh words only partially fueled by Loki's scepter. Morgan smiled sadly at her father. "My dad's here today to walk me down the aisle, and I will never be able to thank Uncle Steve enough for that. I can't thank him for the last twenty-odd years where I was able to turn to my dad for advice, where he was able to help me moan and groan my way through grad school and the SHIELD Academy, and all the years we have still to come." She looked back at her husband. "He loved me enough to say goodbye, and I know he loved you too, Nate." She glanced out into the crowd and focused on one of her honorary uncles. "Thank you for keeping him alive for us Uncle Bucky."

Bucky raised his champagne glass in their direction, eyes warm with love for the two of them. There were now two people allowed to call him that; once Morgan had asked for him to love Nate for Uncle Steve as well, he knew he was a goner. Nate smiled at Bucky and then reached up to grasp his wife's hand reassuringly.

Morgan took a deep breath and raised her glass. Around the tent, everyone else mirrored her. "I want to thank you all for coming today, I'm so grateful that we have such an amazing family. Even though they aren't all physically here, we've had a lot of support and help to get us to where we are today, and I am so excited to see where the future takes us."

As a group, they all took a sip from their glasses. Tony stood up as Morgan turned to him, and they embraced tightly. "Love you three thousand, Maguna," he murmured in her ear.

Morgan let out a weak chuckle through her tears. "Love you three thousand and five," she whispered back.

Tony chuckled too. "Uncle Steve would be so proud of you."

Morgan pulled away and sniffed, smiling. "You too."

Tony hoped so. It would have been so easy to fall back into the cycle of alcohol and poor life choices, but he had made a promise to Pepper, and to Steve even if the asshole was no longer physically around, that he wouldn't let that happen. He had worked so hard over the last couple of decades to be the father and husband that Morgan and Pepper deserved, and superhero the world needed, both through Stark Industries and as the leader of the Avengers.

Once Morgan sat back down, it was the groom's turn. Nate stood up and rested a hand gently on Morgan's shoulder, squeezing reassuringly. "I'm not sure what else I can say that my wife hasn't already, but then we all know she's the brains of this operation," everyone laughed, and Nate grinned self-deprecatingly. "We really are so grateful for having such a close extended family, no matter how much we whined about it at the time." More laughter, and Nate turned back to his wife. "This is the part where I'm supposed to wax poetic about how amazing this woman is, but you don't really need to hear it any more – you've probably gotten enough over the last fifteen or twenty years." He shrugged, still grinning, and Morgan rolled her eyes. It was true though, they had been best friends for most of their lives, and Nate had definitely talked more than one wedding guest's ear off over how much he loved his wife, even before they were officially together (Cooper had been particularly sick of it by the time Lila had announced to the entire family that she had finally caught the two in the act during that movie night at the Compound all those years ago).

"So instead I'll just keep it to thanks." He looked at Tony and Pepper. "Thanks for trusting me with your daughter," he glanced over at his own parents, "You guys too." Clint smirked, and Laura shook her head, cuffing her husband lightly on the shoulder. He looked back over the crowd of guests. "Thank you to everyone who became part of this family, whether by choice or because we picked you up and dragged you along for the ride." There were more than a few superheroes in the crowd who smiled broadly, knowing they were part of the latter. Nate looked back at Morgan. "And a special thanks to Uncle Steve, who helped us become the people we are today, even if he wasn't there physically."

Nate took a deep breath, raising his glass. "Here's to our family: the ones we've had all along, the new ones we've welcomed along the way, the ones we still have to meet, and the ones we'll never forget, who are no longer here with us." He glanced at the empty chair next to Tony. "Uncle Steve, Auntie Nat, I wish you could be here in person, but I hope you're up there somewhere watching, and I hope you know how much we love you." He took a drink, and the rest of the group followed along, though there were a few sniffles in the crowd that weren't quite masked by the sound of glasses clinking.

The evening moved on, plates cleared and people began to make their way onto the dance floor (or to the chocolate fountains). It was much later in the night, the band beginning to wrap up and people heading inside for the night if they were staying (most of the superhero crowd) or towards the line of quinjets parked on the other side of the Compound (for those agents who needed to get back to work at their various stations around the world).

Nate and Morgan were still on the dance floor, wrapped in each other's arms as the band played the last song of the night. "So was this everything you'd hoped for?" Nate murmured quietly as they swayed to the music.

Morgan smiled softly and pulled her head back so that she could look her husband in the eye. "It was wonderful, Nate. There's only one thing that could have made it better, but I know he was here in spirit. This was perfect."

Nate sighed sadly. In a perfect world, Morgan would have had her father and her uncle here tonight. In a perfect world, none of them would have to know the pain that came with losing someone they loved. He wished he could give her that.

Morgan shook her head, seeing the flash of guilt in his eyes. "Like you said, he's always here. We were surrounded by our family tonight, Nate, even those who are no longer physically present. And just because we can't see them anymore doesn't mean they don't stay with us. Right?"

Nate smiled reassuringly and nodded. "Right."

Morgan had told all the wedding guests just a few hours earlier how grateful she was that she had had her father to live life with all her childhood, and how much she appreciated all the things they were going to experience together. It had been the one true dark cloud over her past, that she and Uncle Steve would never get to have those moments, but he was always with her, in every decision she made, every moment she got to turn to her father for advice or to share in a new memory.

It wasn't fair, but then life never was, and it wasn't supposed to be. Life was supposed to be lived: good or bad, exhilarating or excruciating, it didn't have feelings or emotions. Life is what you make of it.

And for Morgan, wrapped in her husband's loving embrace, surrounded by family both of blood and choice, she knew she had made a pretty good one.

_I always set out to make these things much shorter than they end up being. But then, I did just try to cram about twenty years into one short story. I hope it wasn't too jumpy._

_Some more notes to consider: I sometimes reference Agents of SHIELD in these stories, but it's hard to fit some of that in, especially considering how season five ended. Even the show didn't really know how to fit in with the movie timeline (I mean they literally had to go to outer space in the future during season five, to avoid making any gaffes that would screw up Infinity War/Endgame). So if you do watch Agents of SHIELD and have questions about certain things (making Maria Director, for example), we're going to say that parts of the season five finale took place in my universe – so Coulson went to Tahiti with May to live out his last days, but instead of Mack becoming Director, it's Maria. Also, Fitz totally didn't die._

_I totally imagine FitzSimmons taking Morgan under their wing and becoming mentors to her, so they were definitely at the wedding, even if I didn't name them – thought it might be weird since they haven't shown up anywhere else._

_I kind of want to hate myself a little bit for putting Hill and Bucky together, but I also wanted to give them a happy ending and they could totally be a kickass power house couple :) (Also, I think Maria Hill is seriously one of the most undervalued characters in the MCU)._


	5. There'll Be Peace When You Are Done

**Title: There'll Be Peace When You Are Done**

**Summary: ****Four people you meet in heaven. Or, the one where they all live happily ever after, even if they're all dead.**

_Heads up: you might see some elements from the tv show Supernatural, if you watch it. So if you think something sounds familiar, I kind of drew on their vision of heaven a little (only without the sociopathic angels and scribe with delusions of grandeur)._

_**One**_

Contrary to popular belief, Steve remembered the first time he died with startling clarity. History liked to paint his sacrifice as a peaceful transition from unconsciousness to death, but it wasn't. He remembered vividly the impact with the ice, his legs pinned and unable to move as the water level rose higher and higher. The shivering from the cold, and even more terrifying, when the shivering stopped.

Gasping for breath that wouldn't come. Ice cold shards of air piercing his lungs, turning slowly to water as it climbed higher and higher and still, he couldn't move.

The icy air becoming thinner, water creeping into his lungs and seeming to freeze them from the inside out as they tried futilely to inflate.

And then finally, just when he felt he might shatter into a million pieces, Steve was able to sink into the black embrace.

Only to wake up almost seventy years later to a world that had kept turning without him and a backstory that he certainly didn't remember being a part of, drawn up in comics and written in history books.

(Sometimes Steve wondered who this 'Captain America' person was, and he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to be friends with the guy).

He reintegrated himself with the world, made friends with his fellow superheroes, and started researching as much as he could online. Internet – so helpful.

He stumbled across the first debate almost by accident, and listened in morbid fascination as two complete strangers discussed what his final moments in the Valkyrie had been like, trying all the while not to remember the icy fingers squeezing his lungs _cold cold cold, please let it stop, Peggy please –_

Steve pulled himself out of the memories with an iron will he hadn't remembered he possessed. The debaters eventually determined that it can't have been that bad since he was, of course, unconscious by the time the plane hit the ice, and Steve closed the Youtube app angrily, throwing the phone to the side – careful to aim for his bed and not the floor so that he didn't accidentally break it. Stark would never let him forget it if he destroyed another phone (it wasn't really his fault, these smartphones were so flimsy and he was slightly stronger than your average Joe, but Stark just loved to mock him for anything and everything).

That was the first time, but certainly not the last, when Steve was confronted by people's extreme ignorance when it came to his 'sacrifice'. Even Stark with all his brains seemed to think that it was probably a pretty peaceful way to go ("I mean yeah, all that water must have been a little cold, but it's not like you could feel it, right?" Steve gave the man a tight smile and left the room before he said something he might regret – or that might actually destroy all the myths that shrouded the polite and composed Captain America in obscurity). A little cold? He had been frozen alive to a state of suspended animation. Did people not seem to realize that, while he had crashed a plane from several thousand feet into a glacier, with his super serum-enhanced body it was unlikely to actually affect him the same way it would a normal person? Stark, with all his knowledge of physics, must have known how fast he would be going by the time the plane hit the ice, but why did no one ever consider that he might have actually been awake after the plane hit the ground?

Point being, Steve remembered death. He remembered the fear, the pain, and only at the very end, the relief that it was finally all over. Steve's first death had taken a very long time to come.

So, it was understandable that he might have some trepidation when it came to his second.

Steve set himself for whatever might happen, watching as Tony blurred out still calling his name, and with a supreme effort, turned to face whatever came next.

To his surprise, there actually was a bright light. He had always thought that was just the result of so many people saying it that everybody began to believe it was true, but he could now say with absolute certainty that it happened. His whole existence flared brightly around him.

But there was no pain. A gentle warmth started in his chest and expanded slowly, reaching out towards his limbs until he was simmering with it. It was more comforting than anything else.

He felt the presence of the entity – the stone? – around him once more. _Death is not meant to hurt Steven, son of Sarah. The process of getting there can be painful of course, but the finality of Death is the one constant in all the fabric of reality. Eventually, everything ends._

Steve felt himself nod, and the warmth began to fizzle back to his chest, leaving his arms and legs tingling slightly.

The entity seemed to constrict and then expand. _You have understood this better than most living beings. This final journey is one all must take – sooner or later, but it comes to all in time. There is no need to fear Death, for eventually, all things return to the source._

The entity disappeared completely, and Steve's vision began to clear.

He was standing in a field. There were sunflowers in the distance, and a blue sky that stretched for miles. He took a few minutes – or perhaps no time at all – to simply stand there and marvel at the serenity around him. He had been fighting one war or another for so long, he didn't even remember what silence was anymore.

"What the hell did you do?"

Steve started, the sudden recrimination echoing loudly in the empty field. He turned quickly, and nearly started crying at seeing Natasha standing in front of him, looking years younger. The combination blond and red hair he had become so used to was gone, the red back in all its glory, hanging below her shoulders and fluttering slightly in a gentle breeze. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a soft blue t-shirt, comfortable clothes he could only remember seeing her in a handful of times over the years he had known her.

It had only been a few weeks since he had last seen her, and he had missed her so much. The one thing that kept him from rushing forward and giving her a hug was the fierce expression clouding her beautiful face.

Natasha Romanoff was seriously pissed off.

Steve grimaced and offered up a helpless shrug. "It's kind of a long story?"

Natasha raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "We've got time."

Looking around the field, Steve realized that she was right. Here – wherever it was – he finally had the time to just _be_. There would be no more rushing from one crisis to the next, no more training and preparing for another battle, another mission. No more looking over his shoulder, fugitive on the run violating the Accords but unable to just _stop_, not when people were in trouble and he could help.

Steve Rogers was dead, and he had never been happier.

Natasha seemed to see this in his gaze, and her own softened minutely. She stepped forward and willingly folded herself into his needy embrace. When they pulled apart a minute later she sighed, compassion and understanding bleeding through every pore of her being. "I get it, Steve. I knew what you were feeling back then. I kept telling myself 'just one more' – one more mission, one more save. And then it _was_ just one more. One last time to save the universe. Giving my life for Clint, that was the best thing I could do."

Steve nodded in agreement. "Giving my life for Tony was the only thing I could do."

Natasha frowned, and so Steve had to tell her the whole story about how they had beaten Thanos and what had happened on Vormir when he had tried to return the stone. When he finished, she winced sympathetically, but she understood completely. Some people balked at making that ultimate sacrifice, but she and Steve had always seemed to be wired differently. For her it was more that she had done so many bad things that she didn't really think she deserved to live as much as the other guy. Steve though… she got the feeling he had always valued his life less, and she never really understood why. Perhaps it had to do with being so sickly as a child, standing up for everyone else and putting himself in jeopardy because he wasn't going to live that long anyway, so what was the point?

"So where exactly are we?" Steve finally asked when the silence began to cross into uncomfortable territory.

Natasha smiled and glanced around her. "What do you see?"

Steve frowned. "It's a field. Isn't it?"

Natasha shrugged. "I see the Barton family farm. Only thing missing is Clint, Laura, and the kids."

Steve tilted his head to the side and looked behind him. He still only saw the same empty field.

Natasha shook her head. "We're dead, Steve. Think of this as sort of a crossing over point. You see what you need to see."

Steve considered that for a moment. Natasha saw a place that brought her comfort – he had seen how much she loved Clint's family every time they had visited the Bartons – starting with that mess with Ultron, and several times while on the run after their split with Tony and the others.

So why then did he see an empty field?

Natasha frowned, expression sympathetic. "It's been a long time since you've felt at home, isn't it. You never really allowed yourself to settle down in this century."

Steve wanted to object, but he knew it was true. He had been holding his breath since he woke up in 2012. Now that he really had a chance to relax, he didn't even know what he would consider 'home' to be anymore. The Stark's lake house? He had loved spending time there with Morgan.

But even that had felt temporary. The last five years, as great as they had been for him and Tony to move past their issues and really become family, had almost felt like the entire universe was standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for something to tip it over.

The scene blurred around him for a moment, and then when it cleared again, Steve blinked in surprise.

They were still in a field – right field, to be exact. He looked to his left, and saw the classic baseball diamond – completely empty, but the large scoreboard overhead told him that it was Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

"Steve?"

Natasha's voice broke through his thoughts, and Steve turned back to look at her. He offered up a pained smile that looked more like a grimace. "Baseball," he explained. "Apparently my home is Dodger Stadium – before New York went insane and moved the team, of course."

Natasha chuckled lightly, remembering when Tony had informed him of that fact, a few months after the Chitauri attack. Steve had had quite a few choice words to say (mostly in his head and in the hallway after he left the common room when he thought he was alone, but Natasha had followed him and caught the end of his rant at the stupidity of various people who had been dead for years).

Steve shrugged and observed the stadium. "Bucky and I used to go to games here," he told her, mind caught up in memories long past. "Whenever we had a little extra money and didn't need to worry about food or rent or my medicine. Sometimes we'd just hang out in the corner of the parking lot with a radio and pretend we could see the action. I remember this one game we went to in May 1941, a few weeks before Bucky shipped out. Pete Reiser had an amazing hit, home run with the bases loaded." He glanced at her sideways. "A few years ago SHIELD tried to convince me I was still in the '40's with that game."

Natasha shook her head but didn't look guilty. She hadn't had anything to do with that decision, and she had one hundred percent agreed with Coulson when he had told her – everything they knew about Captain America pointed to a man who possessed some intelligence and situational awareness. Trying to trick him was not the best way to convince him they were on the same side.

"So this was the last time you felt like you were home?" she asked instead, feeling suddenly sad that it had been so long since he had really felt comfortable in the world.

Steve sighed lightly. "The war changed everything. Bucky left, I had to go through an insanely dangerous and painful medical procedure to join him, and well… you know how it all ended." He looked towards home plate off in the distance. "Maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something. But are we going to be stuck in right field until I figure out what that is?"

Natasha laughed, and Steve turned back to her, a twinkle in his eye that had been absent for far too long, now that the former spy really thought about it. "This is just a waiting room, Steve. The welcoming committee. You ready to move on?"

Steve thought about saying something about how that's why he had given his life in the first place, but thought that might not go over so well so he just nodded and took the hand she offered him.

The moment their fingers touched, the stadium blurred and shifted.

They were now standing in what looked like a pub or bar. A few people were scattered around the room, seated at tables with drinks in front of them. Steve looked at Natasha and raised an eyebrow.

Natasha shrugged. "Gathering place. Everybody's got their own heaven, so to speak, but that doesn't mean we can't still see each other and hang out from time to time."

Steve was born Catholic (if anyone had ever bothered to ask – newsflash: no one did. It hadn't taken him too long after waking up to learn that apparently Captain America stood for those good old fashioned Christian values. No one seemed to realize that he had been born to two Irish immigrants and lived his life until the war in a relatively progressive Brooklyn neighborhood. So yeah, Catholic. And even though he wasn't completely sold on the idea of a higher power, he had still attended Mass regularly with his mother, and then Bucky after she had died because even though Bucky was Jewish he knew how much those weekly services had meant to Sarah Rogers and he knew how much Steve would regret it if he stopped going after she was gone).

One thing most religions seemed to agree on though was the idea that _something_ happened after death – heaven, hell, reincarnation, whatever.

Steve was pretty sure a bar that seemed to have every beer known to man on tap was not what Father Murphy had had in mind.

"So you've just been… what, spending the last few weeks in a bar?" Steve raised an eyebrow as he looked down into Natasha's amused gaze.

The woman smirked. "They have sixteen different brands of vodka, Rogers. No hangovers in heaven."

Steve rolled his eyes. "You've never had a hangover in your life, Romanoff."

Natasha shrugged. While she hadn't been enhanced in the same way that Steve and to a lesser extent Bucky had been, the Red Room had still done certain experiments and procedures on their operatives that resulted in alcohol having less of an effect on her than it would on a normal person.

Steve pursed his lips and observed the room. "So… anyone can come to this bar?"

Natasha nodded. "Not everyone chooses to. The idea of heaven is there, Steve. It's supposed to be the ideal ending, you know, all your happiest moments. And for most people, they can spend eternity in those memories. But some have ties to others that they can't give up even after they're dead. This place gives those of us who want it an opportunity to see our loved ones as they are now, not just as we remember them."

"Our own heaven?" Steve was curious, and more than a little confused.

Natasha sighed. "I don't claim to be all that knowledgeable about how this all works, Steve. I remember waking up on Clint's farm." She grimaced, looking a little perturbed as she led him to an empty table in the far corner. Before they had even settled, the bartender was there with a shot of vodka for Natasha and a beer for Steve. "I honestly thought I was going to the other place. You know, if I believed that heaven and hell actually existed."

Steve shook his head, leaning forward. "You were a hero, Nat. I know about your earlier years, but you strove every day to make up for that. Intentions matter."

Natasha downed her shot and inclined her head minutely. "Anyway. I walked through the door and then suddenly I was back in the Avengers Compound." Her expression grew wistful. "Before all the mess, before everything went to hell. We were happy, Steve. I had a family. But even being surrounded by that, it still got a little old. The memories flickered and died as soon as I realized they _were_ just memories. I managed to find my way to this place, and it's nice sometimes, talking to others. I can go back to my own heaven whenever I want, but I'm usually here at least a few hours every day."

Steve nodded slowly. "So I've got my own heaven around here somewhere?"

Natasha nodded. "I brought you here first, but I can show you how to get there whenever you want. I just thought you might want to know about the pub."

Steve frowned, observing her carefully. Her expression seemed a little forced, even as she tried to smile and offer to help show him to a compilation of all his best memories and moments. After a minute of silence where Steve finished half his beer and Natasha downed two more shots, he bit his lip. "If I wanted to go with you instead, could I?"

Natasha blinked, startled. "I don't think there are really any rules in place," she said slowly, her expression searching. "But Steve… heaven is supposed to be the penultimate ending, everything you've ever loved is waiting for you on the other side of that door." As if in response to the former spy's words, a plain gray door appeared on the wall beside them.

Steve glanced at it, and then turned back to his friend. "It wouldn't be real though," he admitted quietly. "Don't get me wrong, I can imagine what might be on the other side of that door. And I miss Bucky, I miss the New York of the 30's and 40's. My mom. I never knew my dad but maybe I'd get to see him too. But the thing is, I found a family too, these last few years." Natasha smiled hesitantly, and Steve sighed. "It sounds so strange, considering how willing I was to throw my life away to get Tony back, how ready I was to leave them all behind."

"You did it _because_ they were your family," Natasha got it in a way not many truly would. She would do anything if it meant she could have given Clint back his family five years ago.

"Yeah," Steve sighed again. "So I could go into my own heaven and reminisce about a different lifetime, but you're here now, Nat. You're my family as much as Bucky and my mom. I'd honestly rather be with the real you than the memories of them."

Natasha's smile started out slowly, but after a minute she was full-on grinning as Steve finished the rest of his beer and stood up.

Together, the pair made for the door that had appeared next to them – now a soft red color that looked very worn and comforting. A quick trip through, and they were gone.

_**Two**_

Steve was alone in the bar a few days – or whatever passed for days in heaven – after he had arrived, when he heard a lull in the music; it was so similar to a moment a lifetime ago when he had looked up to see an angel in a red dress walking towards him that it caused him to pause with his glass halfway to his lips.

And just like he had all those years ago, Steve glanced up at the change in atmosphere, and his glass nearly slipped from his fingers.

She wasn't wearing a red dress this time. Simple jeans and a purple sweater, but she was just as beautiful now as she had ever been.

Peggy stopped in the middle of the floor and looked at him for a long moment. Finally, she smiled. "You're late."

Steve clambered to his feet, feeling ten feet tall and clumsier than he had been even before the serum had given him the grace of a seasoned fighter. He approached her cautiously, gaze searching. "I can have the jukebox play something slow to make up for it?" he finally replied, a twinkle in his eye.

Peggy glanced at the device in the corner, which had switched over from Billy Joel to Madonna while they had been talking. Looking back at Steve, she saw his apprehension. He had always been so easy to read for her. He wanted to come closer but was holding himself back.

Well, Petty Carter had no such compunctions. She took a half step forward and grasped him desperately in a firm embrace.

After a moment's hesitation, Steve was hugging her back just as urgently.

When they pulled apart, Peggy didn't go far. Steve's arms still wrapped loosely around her waist, and her own migrated up to rest comfortably around his shoulders. Her eyes dropped briefly to his lips, and then back up to meet his compassionate gaze.

Steve almost frowned. "Your husband, Peg…" His voice was barely above a whisper.

Peggy smiled softly. "He was a good man, Steve. I did love him, and he gave me two wonderful children whom I adore. He is safe and happy in his own heaven, surrounded by the memories of our past." Her own voice was just as soft, full of fondness. "But we were not soul mates. I can admit that now and I could acknowledge it even when we were both alive. I did love him, but there was always someone else, a life I never got to live. A love I never had a chance to let develop and grow. I awoke here in my own heaven, and yet even surrounded by memories of my family there was still something missing. Someone I needed, as much as I used to need air to breathe."

And then she was kissing him, standing on her toes and dragging his head down so that his lips could meet her own, since he seemed to be too shocked to make any moves himself.

When they pulled apart a few minutes later, Steve still looked dumbstruck. Peggy grinned, pleased to have been able to cause such an effect in the indomitable captain. "You'll catch flies, Steve."

Steve swallowed, forcing his mouth closed. After a few moments of silence, he smiled ruefully. "I've been wanting to do that since the last time you kissed me. Way to spring that one on a guy, by the way. I almost missed my window to jump."

Peggy's lips thinned as she recalled those moments from so long ago. Her complete and utter breakdown after they lost the communication feed from the plane mid-sentence. Howard had tried to comfort her but that man really wasn't great with people. He had tried to deal with her loss and his own by spending the next few decades searching for Steve's body.

Steve seemed to realize he had brought the mood down, and winced. "Sorry," he muttered.

Peggy sighed and shook her head. "Not your fault," she admitted. "I knew the kind of man you were, and I would never have expected you to try and save yourself at the expense of the rest of the world. It broke my heart to lose you that day, and I've waited a lifetime to hold you in my arms again."

"I'm sorry," Steve said again, and Peggy rolled her eyes.

"I don't need you to be sorry, Steve. I had a good life when you were gone. I never stopped missing you, but I was able to move forward eventually."

Steve smiled sadly. He had missed his Peggy since the moment he had come out of the ice, but he was glad that she hadn't spent her life in mourning for him. The only thing he wanted was for her to be happy, and he knew that she had been. "So what now?" he asked curiously, glancing around the pub. Only a few tables were occupied at the moment, just a few people besides the bartender, and no one was paying them any attention.

Peggy shrugged. "Whatever we want. This is heaven, Steve. There is no timeline, no mission to get to, nothing stopping us."

"I don't want to take you away from your husband –" Steve tried to argue.

Peggy shook her head, cutting him off. "I told you, Steve, he's happy. He's in his own heaven with me and our children."

"And you don't want to be with your kids?" Steve asked, resolve weakening but he had to make sure.

Peggy sighed exasperatedly. Men! "Those aren't my children, Steve. They're a memory of the life we lived together. My children are happy and safe on Earth, thanks to you. Thanks to your friends." She paused, suddenly uncertain. "Unless… if you've moved on…"

Steve winced, shaking his head quickly, hating the expression of fear that briefly crossed her face. "It's not that," he promised. "I love you, Peg. I always have. But you said it yourself, you were able to carve out a pretty good life after me. You have a husband who loves you, and whom you love."

Peggy rolled her eyes. "You can love more than one person, Steve. He has a version of me with him that loves him unconditionally." She sucked in a deep, shaky breath. "I did mourn when I lost him. But when you died, Steve, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't _function_."

Steve immediately tightened his grip around her waist, pulling her closer. "I'm here now," he whispered reassuringly.

Peggy buried her head in his shoulder, sobs wracking her thin frame.

Standing in this cozy pub that blew any notions he might have had about the concept of heaven out of the water, Steve had never felt more content.

It had taken him a lifetime, but he had finally gotten the girl.

They had forever to spend together now. Nothing could keep them apart.

_**Three**_

To be perfectly fair, Steve probably should have expected the punch.

He had always thought that Peggy and Natasha would have gotten on like a house on fire. They were different in many ways, but in the ways that counted – duty, honor, loyalty – they had the same fierce compassion and determination. That, along with a take no bullshit attitude, and it was no wonder Steve had always thought so highly of Natasha, even when some less-than-circumspect agents had tried gossiping to him about her shady past in a futile attempt to cast shadows on the infamous Black Widow.

The two had never met in life – Peggy retiring long before Clint had convinced Natasha to change sides – but they became friends nearly instantaneously the minute Steve brought Peggy back with him to Natasha's heaven/the Avengers Compound. It didn't look quite the same as it had when they had been living and operating out of it – if Steve had to compare, it looked most similar to the five years after Thanos' snap, but even then, there were several significant changes. It looked more like a home now, a large open space made for relaxing, with no need for a contingent of agents or a STRIKE team training for their next assignment or mission. There were still training rooms of course, exercise was the best way Steve knew to work out his issues – as the many punching bags he had destroyed over the years could attest.

Natasha joined him in those rooms more than once. The two were fairly evenly matched when it came to fights, they had learned over their years working together in life. What Steve had in strength and strategy, Natasha matched with flexibility and deadly accuracy.

And once Peggy started living in their heaven, she too found enjoyment in working out her muscles and her frustrations.

Peggy had her own heaven, just as much as Steve did, but neither of them felt the need to return to it (or go to it at all, in Steve's case). They had all they needed right here, and though the Compound could seem a bit large and a bit intimidating, it was in no way unwelcoming.

The trio spent many years enjoying the comforts of each other and their new existence. Time stood still in heaven, and they had nothing to do beyond simply be with each other or meet other comrades at the pub they could all access.

Peggy introduced Steve to a few friends she had made through the years, and they all had a rather startling reunion with the Howling Commandos one afternoon – completely unplanned, but it turned into an entire day spent trying to drink each other under the table in a way they never could in life – not when they always needed to be ready for their next assignment. Steve truly got to see for himself the lack of hangovers in heaven, as Dum Dum and Dernier polished off nearly an entire keg each and were still just as coherent and steady on their feet.

He even met Howard again. And after a few choice words about the man's parenting techniques (as much as Steve had cared for Howard, Tony was like a brother to him and Steve had learned enough about his childhood to know that Howard had a lot to answer for), Howard began joining them semi-regularly at the pub. He had ruefully admitted that he hadn't been a great father, apologized to Steve for spending so much time looking for him and not enough time being there for his own son, and then began hounding the super soldier for any and all stories about his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter.

But most of their time was spent in Natasha's heaven at the Compound. Relaxing on the spacious grounds (Peggy and Steve wrapped in each other's arms with no intention of ever letting the other go again), pummeling punching bags that never seemed to break (to Steve's delight), and converging around the cozy table in the dining room over a meal that Peggy cooked (Natasha was just as hopeless as Steve in the kitchen).

They didn't even realize how much time had passed until their existence was interrupted one day by a rather unexpected addition.

Steve and Peggy had spent the afternoon on a blanket under the shade of the trees at the edge of the Compound. They had invited Natasha to join them, but she had taken one look at the lovey-dovey expression on their faces and knew exactly what they would be getting up to on this 'picnic' so had gracefully bowed out in favor of a long workout session where she wouldn't be subjected to watching the people she thought of as brother and sister try to perform a tonsillectomy on each other.

They had spent so many years together by now, that Steve didn't even blush anymore when she told him exactly that, a fond and exasperated expression on her face. Natasha was thrilled that Steve and Peggy had found each other up here, she had known how much he had missed her during life and though love had never been in the cards for her (despite at one time thinking she may be able to define something with Bruce), she could easily see a 'love story for the ages' in the way those two looked at each other. They ended up having a hilarious moment one afternoon as they spent some time working their way through a rather large collection of movies stacked in the Compound's living room – Steve had tried to catch up on modern pop culture, but had never gotten around to watching _The Princess Bride_. When Wesley told Buttercup that "death cannot stop true love, all it can do is delay it for a little while," Natasha turned to look at Steve and Peggy with such a deadpan look that they had to pause the movie for a few minutes because they were laughing so hard.

But just because she was happy that they were so happy, didn't mean she necessarily wanted to watch it. So Natasha left them to their plans, and Steve and Peggy were so wrapped up in each other that they didn't even know when she left their heaven – because by this point, it wasn't just hers anymore. Peggy hadn't gone back to her own since she had followed Steve here, and Steve had never even seen what his was supposed to be.

It wasn't until Steve caught movement out of the corner of his eye that they pulled apart and watched, stunned, as Natasha walked towards them.

She wasn't alone, though. Trailing behind her, same shoulder-length hairstyle that he had become used to in the years before the snap but looking much younger and more carefree, and with two flesh arms, was Bucky.

Steve climbed to his feet slowly, pulling Peggy up behind him. His expression was awed and not a little bit afraid. Bucky's expression reminded him forcefully of the one Natasha had worn when he had seen her again in that field so long ago.

"Buck –" he started when the two were close enough.

Bucky cut him off abruptly with a right hook to the jaw.

Steve's head snapped back and he staggered slightly. Wincing, he turned back to his best friend, prepared to defend his actions, but found he didn't need to say anything after all. Now that he had gotten the introduction out of the way, Bucky immediately stepped forward and grasped his best friend in a tight hug.

Steve hugged him back, suddenly realizing how much he had missed the man. It was impossible to gauge time here, and though he remembered Bucky, he hadn't really contemplated not being able to see him every day until he was standing here and Steve seemed to understand just how long had passed.

"You stupid bastard," Bucky whispered, unwilling to let him go for a long while.

Off to the side, Natasha and Peggy watched, smiles on their faces at the tearful reunion of two brothers.

"I'm sorry," Steve murmured, hugging his brother in all but blood just as tightly.

Bucky shook his head slightly and pulled back. "You're not," he said wisely. Steve winced, but Bucky didn't seem to be angry anymore. "I always understood why you did it. Didn't make it easier to accept, but I got it. I just missed you, punk."

Steve smiled, and Bucky turned to look at the two women. Peggy immediately stepped forward and gave him a firm hug, so pleased to see him again after all these years.

"Not surprised about this at all," Bucky grinned when they pulled apart, looking between the two. Steve just shrugged, and they all sat down on the blanket.

Bucky pulled the picnic basket towards him and started searching for something to eat as he explained how he got here.

"Nothing too dramatic," he explained between bites of pasta salad. Was it weird that he was dead and this was the best pasta salad he'd ever had? Peggy must have cooked, he knew Steve could barely set foot in a kitchen without something catching fire. "I retired years ago. Spoiling the nieces and nephews has been more my speed for the last few years." He shrugged. "I think I went in my sleep, I remember going to bed, and then waking up in a baseball field. Romanoff was there, and I looked like this – two arms and all." He grinned. Though the various metal arms Shuri had invented for him had definitely grown on him over the years, he couldn't deny that he liked having both arms again.

Natasha smiled slyly when they all turned to look at her. "I was in the gym when I felt like I needed to be somewhere else. I made my way to the waiting room, and found Bucky. Also – you two really are made for each other. Seriously, who sees a baseball field as home?"

Steve chuckled, remembering his own welcome to heaven, so long ago.

Natasha shook herself off and grabbed one of the sandwiches in the picnic basket. She didn't need to eat – none of them did, of course – but they still enjoyed the taste of food. "I found Bucky and offered to show him to his heaven or bring him back here."

"Like I'd ever want to go anywhere else," Bucky rolled his eyes. "What do I need a heaven full of old memories for when I could be here with the real thing?"

Steve smiled warmly and grasped Bucky's shoulder tightly.

As Bucky polished off the pasta salad, he told them all about what they had missed over the last few decades.

Morgan and Nate's wedding drew many smiles, Peggy ecstatic to hear about the happy ending for the little girl that had featured so prominently in many of Steve's stories.

They learned all about the couple's two children – Steven James and Natasha Maria (more than a few tears shed by all of them at that).

Bucky told them about his own relationship ("You and Hill?" was accompanied by Natasha's incredulous stare. Bucky just smiled and nodded contentedly). They had never married, but lived together happily for many years until Maria's death a year earlier.

Natasha wondered if they could find her and bring her here, but though she was able to get to the waiting room when she felt she was needed (which wasn't for every death of course, just Steve and Bucky's, apparently) and the pub, she didn't know how to access other people's heavens. The only reason Peggy and Steve could enter and exist this heaven on their own was because they had abandoned their own and considered this to be their heaven – otherwise they would have needed Natasha to enter it every time they left. Bucky sounded so wistful when he talked about losing her though, that Natasha hoped Maria would find her way to the pub so that their paths could eventually cross.

Bucky continued to talk throughout the afternoon, as they eventually moved inside and gathered on the couches in the living room. He and Maria had never had kids, but they were the cool aunt and uncle to everyone else's. Quill and Gamora had eventually come visiting with a pale green, red haired ball of fire named Elisa – just as deadly as her mom and with none of her dad's idiocy, according to Bucky (though apparently that was a direct quote from Tony). The Guardians tried to make at least yearly stops on Earth to catch up with everyone, and they kept in contact through virtual messages regularly as well.

Sam had eventually settled down with a woman he had met while volunteering at the VA – another volunteer vet. The couple had had two children who had both followed their parents into the armed services. With Sam's blessing, Bucky had passed along the shield to his son a few years ago after the young man was honorably discharged from the army and joined SHIELD.

The Avengers were still going strong with newer members added as older ones retired or moved to more support roles. They worked regularly in conjunction with SHIELD, which had been re-established as the true protective agency it was always meant to be. Bucky shared Maria's story for them all to hear – how Coulson hadn't actually stayed dead after Loki's attack and had brought the agency back and run it underground for years before his true death shortly before Thanos' arrival, and how Maria had taken over after they had defeated Thanos, reestablishing the bonds of trust that had been burned after HYDRA's attempted takeover and working not just with Earthbound heroes but those from other worlds as well, aiding the Guardians and Captain Marvel whenever needed, to protect the world and the universe from intergalactic threats – and there had been a few over the years.

Peggy had hated hearing about what her vision had become when they told her shortly into their shared cohabitation of Natasha's heaven – apparently nobody had wanted to tell her while she was still alive, or if they had she couldn't remember because of the dementia – but was proud of Steve and Natasha for tearing HYDRA down again (though apparently with some help from true SHIELD agents even if they didn't get much credit for it at the time). She was glad to hear that it had finally been able to become what it should have been from the start.

Steve was pleased to see that the mess with the Accords had truly been put to rest, with SHIELD becoming the oversight that they had all agreed was needed, even if Steve and Tony had once disagreed about what form it should take. Registration was just a bad memory, and enhanced individuals now had an authority they could actually trust to provide assistance if they needed it.

Lila had been SHIELD Director for ten years now, and Cassie had taken over as Stark Industries' CEO since Pepper had retired around the same time as Maria. She had been too busy to act as a superhero for years by that point, so had passed the suit her step-grandfather had given her to her half-sister Lizzie, who was doing a kickass job as Stinger.

It was easy to see the pride Bucky had for his large extended family, and Steve felt a pang of sorrow and perhaps a little jealousy, that he hadn't been there to watch it all happen with Bucky. But as he continued to listen, hearing many more stories that featured Tony, Tony and the Avengers, Tony and Morgan, he knew he had done the right thing. Bucky didn't shy away from telling Steve how much they had all missed him, but they had managed to move on.

They had had good lives without him. Morgan had had her father. The world had had Iron Man. And they had had Captain America as well. Steve and Natasha were both crying when Bucky told them about Tony and Rhodey's request, and his agreement. Both approved, knowing that there was no one else who should have taken the shield at that time. Steve was so proud of Bucky for doing it even through the grief.

He had always regretted leaving his best friend, but it had been the right thing to do. Bucky had lived a good life without him, established a new family in the Avengers the same way Steve did all those years ago. And once he had lived it to its fullest, he had left the world behind and found Steve once more.

Heaven had always been everything he ever wanted, and now, it was even better.

(A few weeks later, Natasha ran into Maria at the pub and convinced her to come visit. Once Maria saw Bucky standing there with Steve, she immediately abandoned the memories of her and her boyfriend running covert ops for the real deal, and never looked back).

_**Four**_

If he had thought about it, Steve probably would have expected a similar reaction from Tony, the first time they were reunited after so long.

Steve had been caught up with Maria, Bucky, Peggy, and Natasha at the pub one day when a door suddenly appeared in the far corner, and then Tony was walking through. His eyes swept curiously over the scene, and Steve was the first one to notice the new arrival.

He swallowed harshly and waited until his friend's gaze locked on their table. As Tony walked quickly forward, Steve set his jaw and stood up, waiting for the inevitable. He wouldn't blame Tony at all if the man laid him out on the floor.

It was surprising then, when Tony didn't wind up for a punch. He barely even slowed down as he practically threw Steve back into the table with the force of his hug. Steve only hesitated briefly before he was hugging back just as tightly.

"Thank you," Tony whispered, words heavy with emotion. He pulled back and sniffed wetly. "I mean, I still want to kill you, but thanks."

"Isn't it a little late for that?" Steve grinned down a few inches into Tony's glare. "Too soon?"

Tony shoved him lightly, and then sat down in the seat Natasha had pulled up for him, right next to Steve. He took a swig of the beer in front of him and glanced around the half-full pub. "So this is definitely not what I had in mind when I pictured the great big castle in the sky."

Steve rolled his eyes and grabbed his beer back, gesturing for the bartender to bring Tony his own. "How long have you been here, and how'd you find your way here?" he asked curiously, gesturing at the room around them. Natasha had shown him and Bucky, and he knew Maria and Peggy had 'woken up' from their heavens on their own, but it had taken them a while. Bucky had been here for a few months now he thought, though it was hard to actually judge the passing of time in heaven, and he had told them that Tony and Pepper had both been alive and kicking when he had died.

Tony shrugged and accepted the drink from the bartender. "A few weeks, I think. Went to bed at Stark Tower one night, woke up at the lake house several decades younger. Eventually found my way to Stark Tower again, had Pepper and Morgan, Nate and the grandkids. But something just seemed off." He set his drink down, eyes glazing over slightly as he thought about it. "The whole thing just felt like déjà vu. Like memories I had already lived. Eventually I found a door that looked out of place. Opened it up and here I am."

Steve nodded, and the others offered him understanding looks. For Natasha, Peggy, and Maria, it had been much the same. Once you realized that the memories were just that – memories – they lost their appeal.

Tony grimaced and stared at his drink. "Not sure I really want to go back to that if I'm honest. I thought heaven was supposed to be this ideal dream?"

"It is if you don't wake up," Peggy sighed, and for the first time, Tony seemed to realize just who she was and how close she was sitting to Steve. He smirked at the former Captain, and Steve just shrugged in acceptance, a small smile playing out across his face. Peggy noted the interaction, and rolled her eyes. "You may be all grown up now Anthony Stark but I will take you over my knee if you don't behave."

Tony's eyes widened as the rest of the table started laughing. "Glad to see you too Aunt Peggy," he finally mumbled, a light blush staining his cheeks.

"That's just weird," Steve muttered under his breath. Death had taken away the maladies and ages of all of them, and hearing his friend, a man he thought of as a brother, calling the love of his life 'aunt' was not something he thought he could get used to. Hopefully it was just a reflex.

Natasha kicked him lightly under the table, and focused on Tony. "You don't have to go back if you don't want to," she informed him.

Tony looked at her, confused. "As much as I love to drink, I'm not sure I want to spend eternity here," he glanced around the room, taking in the other occupants.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Don't be an idiot. We've got our own place, we only come here occasionally."

Tony furrowed his brow. "Your own place?"

Natasha shrugged. "It used to be my heaven. Steve joined me when he showed up, brought Peggy with him, then Bucky and Maria. Everyone's got their own happy ending, but these guys decided they'd rather stick together. Steve and Bucky have never even seen what their own heaven's supposed to be."

Tony didn't need to be asked twice. His heart thudded painfully as he thought about the fake-Pepper waiting for him back in his own heaven, but he didn't want the memory. Someday, the real thing would come around, and he'd make sure he found her again then. Until that time though, he was happy to go with the others to… seriously? The old Avengers Compound? Tony could see the obvious differences between this version of the Compound in upstate New York, and the one they had built after Thanos had been defeated. Of course it wouldn't be that one though, he ruefully reminded himself as he took in the comfortable couches in the living room and the entire wall devoted to a television and DVD collection. This was Natasha's heaven, and she had never even seen the new Compound.

Location didn't matter though. He watched Peggy and Steve drop down onto one sofa, sitting so close together that Peggy was practically in Steve's lap, and Bucky and Maria curl up on another sofa.

He had lived a happy and healthy life, full of love and laughter and a daughter whose eyes positively sparkled every time she looked at him, because she knew how close she had come to never having that option again.

But he had missed Steve. He had missed his brother, and even though they were dead, he finally had him back.

So for the time being, death was good.

(Soon after, Pepper found her way to the pub with a steady glare for Tony and the others who had all been enjoying a drinking contest with the Howling Commandos, Howard, and a few of Peggy's friends from the early SHIELD days and a firm embrace for Steve and Natasha – "I've been putting up with your crap for decades, Tony, you think I couldn't tell that those memories weren't really you?" Tony just gave her a searing kiss and the two headed back to the Compound early).

_I'm considering adding one more short chapter to this – Howard and Tony's meeting. Let me know if you want to see it!_


	6. Tossed About Like A Ship On The Ocean

**Title: Tossed About Like A Ship On The Ocean**

**Summary: Tony speaks to his father for the first time in decades, and maybe actually starts to let go of the resentment and move on. He had to be dead first, but at least he finally gets closure?**

_Plot wise, it takes place sometime after Tony meets up with Steve and the others, but before the end of There'll Be Peace When You Are Done (Pretty much in between the two final paragraphs – so before Pepper arrives, basically)._

**Disclaimer: not mine**

Tony hadn't really thought much about heaven. Dying, sure, it seemed like he had courted death every other day for a while there. The downside of being a superhero and all that. Though he had passed on the torch many years earlier – choosing to retire to an advisory role for good when his grandson Steve had been born (he had put himself in enough danger when he had a kid at home waiting for him, he couldn't put his grandkids through that as well) – he had still had far too many brushes with death to be healthy.

He had even died once before. He remembered precisely nothing about the apparently several weeks he had spent in the afterlife (despite an amusing quip about cheeseburgers that was probably in poor taste at the time, but he couldn't help himself).

Even if he _had_ thought about it though, a bar with every alcoholic beverage imaginable and no hangovers was an ideal dream even he in his younger partying days couldn't have come up with.

Now that he was here though, he had to admit it could be much worse. He had done a lot of questionable things and been pretty self-serving during his life. If he had believed in such things as heaven and hell, he wouldn't have been willing to bet on where he would end up. But the aforementioned bar, a model of the old Avengers Compound, and even better, some of his best friends were all waiting for him from the moment he woke up from the memories of his family. He hadn't seen Steve and Natasha in decades. Maria and Bucky's deaths had hit him and Pepper hard. And Peggy – holy shit, only Cap could die and still end up with the girl in the end.

Tony didn't need to think twice about following them to the Compound and giving up his own heaven. The only thing that would make it better was Pepper by his side, but he had every belief that when she died – hopefully not for a very long time – she would see through the memories just like he had, and would find him again eventually.

Until then though, he would enjoy what he had found here. Catching up with Steve, who had gotten a rundown from Bucky and Maria but latched onto any and all stories about the friends he had left behind so long ago, and marveling at what heaven was actually like. They had to have copies of every movie that had been released, _ever_, in their living room. According to Natasha, they had been making steady progress, but there were so many things to do in this afterlife other than hole themselves up watching movies. The grounds were massive, the training rooms rivaled what the Compound in New York had had at the height of its use, and of course there was the pub. Bar. Whatever it was.

As Tony soon discovered, the group had many more friends that they hung out with regularly, though only the five of them (six including Tony) ever went back to the Compound. Apparently, they only had the one communal meeting spot, and people just didn't visit each other's heavens (he wondered why that was, if it wasn't possible or if it was considered some sort of cultural taboo, before giving the entire thought process up as a headache-inducing waste of time – and he was dead. He didn't _get _headaches. He didn't need to think about the taboos of ghosts).

Peggy introduced Tony to some of her friends from the early days of SHIELD, and Steve introduced him to the Howling Commandos – he had met Dugan a few times as a kid, but the group had for the most part fallen out of touch by the time he had come into the picture. And Howard had buried himself in his research and development, and his search for Captain America, and as a result let those friendships lapse before Tony had grown to double digits.

For all these introductions though, there was one meeting Tony really should have expected. But he had to admit, the possibility hadn't even entered his mind until he was early to meet the group for drinks one afternoon – Maria and Natasha had begged off and Bucky was in the middle of an intense workout but said he might come later if he wasn't too tired. Steve and Peggy had gotten a little sidetracked, and Tony determinedly would _not_ be the one to let them know that they were supposed to be at the bar to meet some friends five minutes ago (he had no interest in interrupting his friend and the woman who used to be his aunt when they disappeared like that – once was more than enough to teach him that it was far better for his sanity to let them have their time and catch up with the rest of the group on their own. Seriously, there were some things you just couldn't un-see. Suffice it to say though, she would never again be Aunt Peggy. Not with the relationship she had with the man who was practically his brother).

So instead of interrupting them and seeing something else that would scar him for...death, he had just rolled his eyes exasperatedly and stepped through the door.

And found himself staring across the table at a much younger Howard Stark than the version he remembered from so many years ago.

Now that Tony understood a little better just what it took to wake up from the memories, he knew how rare it was for that to happen. Most people didn't have Natasha to meet them at the entry point and explain, like Steve and Bucky had had. There were billions of souls in heaven, but the bar only saw a hundred or so over the course of any given day – or whatever passed for a day in the eternal afterlife.

So him and Maria, Peggy and Natasha, the Howling Commandoes and all the others he had met over the last few days, they were the odd ones out. He had never thought to lump his father in with that exclusive crowd though – what did Howard have to hold onto so badly that he would wake up from the perfection of heaven? Tony's – admittedly somewhat jaded – memories told him that the only thing Howard really cared about was himself.

Howard looked just as much like a deer caught in headlights as Tony when the two locked gazes from across the table. Howard was sitting with Morita and Dugan on one side, and several empty spaces on the other, clearly waiting for more people to join.

_Shit_. Tony, Steve, and Peggy were supposed to meet the Commandoes this afternoon.

Why had no one told him Howard could be joining them?

Tony's feet remained planted to the floor, unable to move as Howard slowly stood up, ignoring the rest of whatever story Dugan was in the middle of telling.

He remained silent as his dead father joined him off to one side of the main seating area of the bar. Howard swallowed harshly and observed his adult son, reminded painfully of the teenaged version he had left behind so many years earlier. The brilliant young man he had completely failed as a father. Pity he had had to die to realize that. Steve, Bucky, and Natasha had told him many stories of Tony and his family over the years, but none of it could compare to seeing the real thing standing in front of him after all this time.

The silence stretched on for several long, tense moments, before Howard finally grimaced and offered up a shrug that was just a touch too nonchalant to be genuinely careless. "If it's any consolation, Steve would have broken my jaw if I wasn't dead?" he commented, the intonation sounding like a question but Tony wasn't quite sure what the answer was supposed to be.

Instead, he quirked an eyebrow in silent invitation to continue, and Howard sighed, shaking his head. His expression showed genuine remorse. "Apologies really don't mean much now, do they. I know I wasn't always the best dad…" he stopped, forcefully swallowed, and then grimaced. "No excuses. I was a pretty crappy father, Tony. I know it now." He snorted. "Even more now than I did after I died. Steve might have been one of my best friends once upon a time, but damn kid, you went and found yourself a brother after all, didn't you?"

Tony rolled his eyes, remembering how often he had asked his parents for a little brother when he had been a kid. His mother had always told him he was so perfect she didn't need any more kids (a line he knew was a cop out once he was old enough to understand all the issues his parents had had), while it had been obvious that Howard just didn't want any more of his time taken up by kids – not that he had spent that much time with Tony in the first place, but still.

Howard smiled easily. "I'm glad, Tony. You could do far worse than Steve."

Tony nodded. He had been lucky in his life to have found several brothers over the years: Rhodey, Steve, even Bucky after Steve had traded his life and the former Winter Soldier had stepped in to take on the role of uncle for Morgan (and Nate).

There was a lull in the conversation at the table a few feet away from them – the one Howard had just vacated – and when Tony looked over, he saw that Steve and Peggy had finally arrived. Peggy was sitting down, but Steve had remained on his feet, his attention focused on Tony and Howard, expression showing nothing but concern.

Tony was torn, and his gaze must have shown it, because Steve squeezed Peggy's shoulder reassuringly and then joined the two Starks in the semi-private corner. "Everything OK?" he asked neutrally, glancing between father and son.

Howard looked to Tony for his assessment, letting him take the lead.

After a moment of silence, Tony nodded slightly. "Did you really punch him?" he asked curiously.

Steve looked at Howard, and then shrugged. "He deserved it," the former super soldier said simply. He looked entirely remorseless.

When Tony looked back at Howard, he saw agreement in the (older? Heaven kind of took away any ages) man's eyes. "I did," Howard chimed in, not skipping a beat.

Tony snorted softly, shaking his head in amusement. "I would have killed for this when I was a teenager," he admitted quietly.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Someone to beat up your dad?"

"OK, let's get one thing straight here buddy, you did not beat me up," Howard looked offended. "It was one punch. I didn't fight back. Even though I had no idea what was going on."

Tony frowned, confused. Steve grimaced, looking a little apologetic for the first time. "It may have been my first reaction seeing him again," he admitted. "I didn't exactly greet him first."

Howard glared lightly. "I stood up to give him a hug and he laid me out across the table."

Tony laughed. "I wish I could have seen it. But no," he rushed on, not giving Howard a chance to butt in, "I was referring to the self-awareness. You never told me you were proud of me. I can't even remember you telling me you loved me. And for the longest time after you died, I hated you for that. And for a whole lot of other things, but those were pretty big parts of it. But it wasn't just that, it was that you and mom died and we never got a chance to reconcile. We never got the chance to know each other as adults and I don't know… maybe form some sort of relationship?" He looked entirely embarrassed, and his gaze flickered over to Steve who looked far too understanding for someone who had had a great relationship with his mother before her death (but maybe he too could understand, given that his own father had died before he was born and he never had a chance to form a relationship with the man?)

Tony grimaced and looked back at his father. Howard looked guilty, and Tony shook his head. "I would have loved to hear you say that you were wrong back then. I mean, I already thought you were always wrong anyway, but it would have been nice to hear you say it." Howard chuckled and Steve smiled. Tony pursed his lips. "Having Morgan definitely changed things for me. I was holding onto resentment for so long, way too long. But one thing having a kid of my own taught me was that you should never let your child doubt that you love them. No matter what they do or how badly they screw up, they should never doubt that you'll always be in their corner."

Howard winced. "I promised myself I wouldn't be like my old man," he admitted. "I really wanted to be different."

Tony shrugged. "You never hit me," he acknowledged, knowing that his paternal grandfather had been a piece of work alcoholic who had no ambitions and thought the world owed him something but wasn't willing to put in the effort to make anything of himself.

Howard shook his head. "That's not exactly a high bar to set," he pushed. "My father liked to spend his evenings pounding me and my mother into the ground, but I spent my days ignoring you and chasing after a ghost." He glanced guiltily at Steve, who kept his expression carefully blank. They had already talked about this and worked out exactly how stupid Howard had been years ago. "I should have told you every day how proud I was. I should have encouraged you to reach for the moon and never let you feel like you didn't matter. I should never have told you that you weren't good enough."

He looked close to tears, and Tony wasn't much better. He stepped forward and pulled Howard into a tight hug, feeling any lingering resentment he thought he had gotten rid of decades ago, finally disappear completely. "You never told me I wasn't good enough," he whispered softly.

Howard shook his head, the motion rubbing against Tony's shoulder lightly. "You don't have to actually say the words," he murmured in response.

Pulling back, Tony knew that Howard was right. Though the man may never have actually said it, by the constant ignoring and belittling, the way he was always comparing Tony to Captain America and finding his son lacking, he may as well have screamed it from the rooftops.

Steve stayed silent through the exchange, smiling gratefully. Howard had been one of his best friends before he had gone into the ice, and he had been both disappointed and saddened to hear about the kind of father the man he had held such high regard for had turned into. Tony had become one of his best friends in what he had thought of as his 'second life', after he had woken up. He hated that Howard had made such a bright and determined man doubt himself and his own self-worth so much. They may have clashed frequently in those early days, but as they got to know each other and their friendship grew, Steve could see how such a childhood would have forced the other man to build that hard exterior, hiding behind bravado and self-centeredness to deflect from the remarkably uncertain child inside who had just wanted someone to be proud of him.

Once the two Starks had separated, Tony found himself incredibly annoyed. "Ok, maybe you were right," he muttered as he brushed passed Steve on his way to the table where Peggy and the others were sitting. Steve hurried to turn around and join him, while Howard followed behind.

"What?" the super soldier asked, confused.

Tony glanced at him and glared. "Don't make me say it again." Steve still looked puzzled, so Tony rolled his eyes. "You made it clear all those years ago that the man you knew and the one I did were two very different people. I never really believed you, but yeah. I think I get it."

Steve's expression cleared, and he sighed softly. Behind them, Howard made a sound of distress, but didn't chime in. "People make mistakes, Tony. We all do things we're not proud of, and I'm glad you two had a chance to clear the air, even if you had to be dead to do it."

Tony snorted. "There's something seriously wrong with that sentence."

Steve smiled slightly but didn't disagree. He looked back at Howard, who nodded resignedly, and Steve grimaced. "I think Howard's come to acknowledge his shortcomings, and I know he regrets the way he acted."

"Definitely," the man in question jumped in, rubbing his jaw in remembrance of the hit he had taken many years earlier. Even dead, Steve still carried the force of a super soldier. "I was an idiot."

Tony chuckled lightly as he sat down next to Steve, who filled in the seat between him and Peggy. Howard sat down on Tony's other side, and the deceased superhero finally felt like he had truly entered heaven. The memories had been nice until he had 'woken up' and realized that it wasn't real. Being with Steve, Natasha, and all the others was great, but missing his dad had been one of those secrets he never really admitted to anyone – his dad had never been all that great when he was alive, so why should Tony miss him once he was gone? But try telling that to the lost kid who was still seeking approval from the old man, even years after his death. Seeing Howard again during the time heist to fix Thanos' snap had woken up that longing feeling he had thought had finally been buried, and watching Morgan grow up had only made the ache more pronounced.

Even after Steve and Natasha had explained a little about what heaven was like for those who had 'woken up', he hadn't really thought about whether he'd see his parents again. If he had thought about it, he would never have even hoped to have something like this – apology, reconciliation, even the chance of building some sort of relationship moving forward. They were dead, they had eternity stretching in front of them, so really anything could happen.

Tony smiled into his beer and felt himself relax even further. Friends, family of blood and choice – yeah, heaven was pretty good. The only thing that would make it better was Pepper, who would hopefully not join him for a very long time.

_This took way longer than I thought it would. I hope I did this meeting justice. I thought this would be the last of this series, but I actually had a few people asking for a Clint reunion, so… maybe we'll see more?_

_Please review!_


	7. Carry On

**Title: Carry On**

**Summary: Clint finally joins the ghostly family.**

_Clint looked up at the sound of gleeful laughter that echoed through the just opened front door. He would never get tired of seeing Steve in the role of super nanny. In between chopping firewood and lending a helping hand with the various repairs that seemed to be a never-ending cycle with home ownership, the only thing those heavily muscled arms were used for on this farm was to provide endless entertainment for Clint's three kids. _

_It was Nate right now who was the focus of Steve's attention. Clint had to hold in a laugh as he watched the super soldier enter through the screen door, one arm easily holding the two-year-old upside down by his knees. Nate's hair had flopped down to cover his eyes, and the archer made a mental note to have Laura take the kid in for a haircut soon._

_Nate was giggling uncontrollably, and Steve's face was completely relaxed and open, taking honest joy in the amusement of the child. _

"_I thought you and Lila were doing target practice," Clint commented, raising an eyebrow in silent question._

_Steve glanced up and shrugged. "I don't care how much you try and promote it, Clint, a bow just isn't a weapon I will ever be proficient in."_

_Clint laughed. "Hey, it's not for everyone. Lila was really thrilled you asked her to teach you though."_

_Steve smiled softly. "She's really good with that thing. You can definitely tell she's your daughter." He looked down at the child in his arms. "This guy though, he's definitely more Laura." Steve used his free hand to tickle Nate's stomach, and the kid let out another burst of laughter._

"_Yeah?"_

_Steve nodded. "He doesn't need any weapons – that glare will do it all for him."_

_Clint snorted. His wife did have a deadly glare. _

_Steve glanced down at the kid in his arms. "Speaking of, your mom said it's almost time for bed. Bath first?"_

"_I can do that," Clint reached out, but Nate squirmed away._

"_Unca Seev!" he protested._

_Steve shifted, pulling Nate upright. "Well all right then. Come on kiddo, let's get you cleaned up."_

"_Are you sure?" Clint asked. Steve had stayed with them a few times since the split over the Accords, but the extent of his visits usually boiled down to entertaining the kids for a few hours, beers on the porch, and usually gone before dawn with barely a good bye, just a promise to stay safe and pass along any messages to Natasha if she hadn't joined him for the visit. _

_Steve nodded surely. "It's no problem. Come on little man."_

"_Not little!" Clint could hear Nate protest as he watched Steve carry his youngest son up the stairs._

The scene blurred and shifted. Laura was walking towards him, beaming radiantly as she clasped a bouquet of lilies and roses in her perfectly manicured hands. Her long white dress fluttered around her ankles as she moved down the aisle. Clint frowned, and shook his head to clear it.

_The retired superhero glanced down at the beer bottle in his hand, feeling the condensation gather as the cold bottle met the warm summer air._

"_Nate's asleep," Steve joined him on the porch, setting his own nearly empty bottle on the railing as he took in the setting sun bathing the fields in orange light. _

_Clint nodded. "Thanks for being here today, man. It means a lot that you guys came."_

_Natasha and Sam were still inside, Sam helping Laura with the dishes while Natasha, Cooper, and Lila were in the middle of an intense game of Go Fish._

_Steve smiled. "We wouldn't miss Nate's birthday for anything, Clint. I can't believe he's three."_

_Clint shook his head, bewildered. "Me either. Seems like we just brought him home from the hospital. What the hell happened to the last three years?" He grimaced. "On the other hand, so much has happened that sometimes I wonder how it's only been three years."_

"_I know what you mean," Steve sighed, picking up his beer bottle and twirling it around in his hands. "Sometimes it amazes me that it's been less than a decade since I woke up from the ice. I feel like it's been a lifetime."_

"_Do you ever miss it? Your life back then?" Clint asked curiously. He and Steve were friends, but he would never have called them best friends, before his retirement from the Avengers. When Steve had asked him to help with the whole Accords mess, Clint had agreed because he didn't believe in what the Accords were trying to do. Sure, he was happy to help his friend, but he would have joined the cause even if the person asking had been a stranger._

_So as casual friends, they had never really had any deep conversations about anything personal._

_Steve took a few minutes to consider Clint's question, as the sun dipped lower and stars began to appear. One of the things Steve liked the most about Clint's farm was the lack of light pollution. He could never see this many stars from his apartment in Brooklyn – in either century. _

_Finally, the super soldier sighed heavily. "All the time," he admitted quietly. He wouldn't look Clint in the eye. "I miss the old Brooklyn. I mean, almost starving to death or nearly dying from asthma attacks every other day wasn't exactly fun, but things were simpler back then. I didn't have to be a superhero, people didn't expect me to be anything other than myself."_

_Clint winced sympathetically. Before his retirement he had seen how the world placed such pressure on the hero Captain America. They expected him to stand tall and proud and support his country. They expected him to never falter, to never make any mistakes. They expected him to be a hero, not a human. Steve bore it with such grace that Clint had almost missed the stress it put on the man. And then helicarriers were falling from the sky and SHIELD was suddenly and abruptly disbanded._

_Steve grimaced. "I miss my friends. Even Howard." He chuckled humorlessly. "Tony and I knew two very different versions of the man. I don't even recognize the guy Tony said he turned into. But I miss the Commandoes." He looked at Clint. "Don't get me wrong, I made some great friends here. I just…" he trailed off, not really sure how to describe the difference between his old unit and the Avengers._

_Clint nodded agreeably. He understood. _

_They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, before Steve let out a long breath of air and shook himself off. "I left the shield behind in Siberia, and it just felt… freeing. I might be public enemy number one, but at least I don't have to be their hero anymore."  
_

_Clint nodded again. "They turned you into an icon and forced their ideals on you, Steve. I get it."_

_Steve shook his head. "The Captain America they pulled out of the ice isn't the same one that went into it. I was a different kind of hero in the war. People didn't expect me to be… more than human. I mean, the USO tour wasn't exactly fun, but once I got to the front line…" he sighed. "They expected me to do my job and protect my men. And if I was harder to injure and more likely to take out the enemy with minimal casualties to our side, so much the better. I woke up almost seventy years later with a backstory I certainly don't remember and a country that raised me up as practically godlike. I never wanted to be a god." He leaned against the porch railing and sighed. "I just wanted to help."_

_Clint ached for the rawness in the other man's voice. He could feel the pain and disappointment in a country that always seemed to want something from him but never gave anything in return. "I'm sorry," he offered, not really knowing what else to say. "But if it means anything, I'm really glad I got to know you." _

_Steve looked up and smiled. It was small but genuine, and made the retired hero feel better. "Clint, you and your family are some of the best things about this century. There are things I miss – a lot of things – but that doesn't mean there aren't good things here too. You, Laura, Lila, Cooper, and Nate… Sam and Natasha, Wanda, even Tony, and Thor and Bruce wherever they are, you're all family. For so long it was just me and Bucky, and then Peggy and the Commandoes, and then I wake up and they're all gone. But then I met you guys, all of you, and suddenly I wasn't alone anymore. I'm honored beyond belief that you trusted us to know about your family, Clint, and I know how much you've risked by letting us stay here."_

_Clint smirked. "Playing it safe was never my strong suit. You're family, Steve. You're always welcome."_

The farmhouse flickered.

_It was just another generic coffee house in New York during a three day leave before he had to return to the SHIELD Academy of Operations to continue with his training. He had thrown himself into SHIELD training full force since he had unwittingly helped that James Bond wannabe shut down a terrorist ring operating out of the circus he had joined up with after running away from home as a kid. Apparently James Bond, and the shadowy organization he belonged to, had been somewhat impressed with his marksmanship – and his choice of weapon – and had offered him a chance to do something more with those skills. He was determined not to squander this opportunity, which meant that even when the Academy was on break, he could generally still be found on campus, continuing to develop and hone his skills (not like he really had anywhere else to go, anyway)._

_This was the first time he had left campus since he joined almost a year ago. Clint was on a one-track mission to get his coffee and go, determined to make as much out of his three days as possible before he needed to return to campus, when raised voices drew his attention away from the counter. _

_A young woman was standing over a hunched figure – a man, it looked like, late twenties. He was clutching his cheek as he glared angrily up at the woman._

_She was shaking her hand roughly, and her own glare was ten times fiercer than what she was being given._

_Clint was moving closer before he even thought about it. "I think that's your cue to leave buddy," he said lightly. The stranger looked like he wanted to argue, but he took one look at Clint's well-muscled body, and stalked off without another word._

_Clint looked back at the woman, who had transferred her glare to him. "I don't need a white knight," she growled._

_Clint shrugged easily. "My armor's being polished so I'm off duty," he shot back with a small smirk._

_The woman blinked, startled._

_Clint glanced at her hand which she seemed to be favoring still. "I can show you how to do that without hurting yourself, if you want."_

_The woman tilted her head to the side, considering. After a moment of silence, she grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder. "Fine, but if you drive a windowless van I'm screaming."_

_Clint grinned. "You're in luck. I don't own a car. I'm Clint, by the way."_

_The woman responded with a smile of her own and let him push the door open, allowing her to exit first._

"_Laura."_

Clint frowned. A busy hospital, a rainy night. A doctor placing a baby in his shaking arms, Laura beaming up at him from the hospital bed. A girl. _His girl._

The walls around him flickered. The baby in his arms disappeared, and Clint looked down, confused.

"_I'm never going to learn this."_

_The childish whine drew Clint's attention from his position by the stove in the kitchen to the dining room table, where Steve and Lila had dug in, working on the thirteen-year-old's math homework._

"_Of course you will," Steve promised patiently. Clint stopped in the doorway and watched. He loved when Steve came to visit because he loved seeing how easily the superhero adapted to helpful uncle._

"_It's all angles and shapes and congruence, and it's just so confusing."_

_Clint could see Steve's smile even though he only had a partial view of the man's face. "I know it's confusing now, Lila, but you do need to learn this stuff."_

"_But why?" Lila asked, frustrated, tossing her pencil aside. "It's not like I'm ever going to use it in real life."_

_Steve frowned slightly and leaned forward. "Lila, how do you think my shield worked?"_

_Lila tilted her head to one side. "I mean, you throw it around and take out bad guys."_

_Steve sighed. "Lila, the shield was just a piece of round metal. It's got no inherent qualities in it other than being the strongest metal on earth. It's not a boomerang. When I threw that shield, I calculated trajectories so that it would hit its target and come back to me. You know what that involved? Angles. Force of impact. Being able to calculate exactly what angle and how strong to throw the shield to take out a target and have it come back to me. I know it's hard to imagine the real-life implementations of what you learn in school sometimes, but believe me, this stuff matters. I used geometry and physics every time I picked up the shield."_

"_Well we can't all be super soldiers like you," Lila grinned._

_Steve rolled his eyes. "Your dad uses math to shoot a bow and arrow accurately. Measuring the wind, weight of the arrow, distance to the target. There's plenty of real-world applications for the stuff you learn in the classroom."_

"_So, if I learn this stuff maybe I could shoot as well as dad?"_

_Steve grinned at the hopeful tone of her voice. "You'll never know if you don't try."_

_Lila determinedly picked up her pencil and got back to work._

The scene flickered again, and from the doorway, Clint narrowed his gaze. This felt… familiar. Had this happened before?

Steve and Lila were bent over the eighth grader's worksheet determinedly working their way through the math problems, but something seemed… off. Why did they seem transparent all of a sudden?

Another flicker, and Clint's confusion grew. For a moment, he thought he could see a much younger Lila and Cooper running through the house. Laura was sitting on the couch, but then she wasn't.

Clint shook his head to clear it, and then stiffened as with one more flicker, Steve and Lila faded from existence completely. "What the –"

He looked around in confusion, and then frowned at a door he definitely didn't recognize. Most of the doors in the house were worn, but this one looked… newer. It was a bright blue that seemed to draw him in, and before he even thought about what he was doing, he was opened it.

Soft music greeted him as he opened the door to a completely different scene. He remembered driving Laura nuts over the years with all his home improvement projects born out of boredom, but he certainly didn't remember ever opening up a bar in his living room.

Clint stepped through, and then watched in confusion as the door melted back into the wall behind him. "What the fuck?"

With no clear exit anymore, he turned back to the room in front of him, hoping to find some answers.

It was crowded, but not completely full inside the bar. Or was it a pub? About three quarters of the tables had people sitting at them, and no one paid him any attention as he took a few steps forward.

Taking in the scene around him, Clint saw groups varying from two to six or seven, most with some form of drink in front of them. He didn't see any food. So, more a bar then. But who were all these people and where was his house?

"Clint?"

Clint spun around so quickly he would have fallen over if he wasn't a superhero with better than average reflexes. His eyes widened. "Nat?"

Natasha grinned, lighting up her face in a way Clint had really only ever seen when she was around his kids. "I'm glad you found your way here." She stepped forward and hugged him tightly. Clint wrapped his arms around her slim waist and returned the gesture just as desperately.

"I missed you," he whispered in her ear.

Natasha pulled back after a few moments, eyebrow arching worriedly. "You're not mad?"

Clint rolled his eyes. "I was pissed," he admitted. "But it's been decades, and I always understood why you felt you had to do it."

Natasha smiled softly. "I needed you to go home to your family, Clint. Whatever else, you had to see them again."

Clint sighed, understanding her reasoning even when he had hated her choice, and decided not to drag this conversation out any further. Instead, he looked around at the bar, frowning. "So you wanna explain where exactly here is?"

Natasha shrugged and began leading him towards the far corner. "Meeting place." Clint listened as she began to explain the basics of where they were and why they used the bar.

By the time they reached an out of the way table, Clint felt he was at least mostly caught up. He had known that something was off as soon as he started to recognize some of the scenes he found himself playing a part in, but it was nice to get the whole run down.

Approaching the table Natasha was leading him towards, Clint started as he realized he recognized some of the people there. One side of the table was strangers, but he could clearly see Maria, Bucky, Pepper, and Tony as well. All four looked up at their arrival, and smiled greetings.

"You know, I honestly never thought I'd be the one to outlive you all," Clint smirked, taking an empty seat next to Tony. Natasha sat down on his other side.

Tony reached out and clasped his shoulder lightly. Pepper smiled broadly in his direction. They had gotten very close over the years, one of the results of having their kids become best friends, significant others, and then husband and wife with a family of their own and grandkids that all the grandparents couldn't get enough of. It was a lot easier to navigate holidays with the in-laws when you generally spent all of them together anyway.

"True," Natasha agreed. "Honestly there were some days I was surprised you outlasted me. You've got no sense of self preservation." She glanced over at Tony. "Where are the others? I thought they'd be here by now."

Tony rolled his eyes. "You've been with them a hell of a lot longer than me. You honestly need me to answer that?"

Natasha shrugged. "Fair point."

Clint looked around the table in confusion. "Someone wanna fill me in?"

Tony rolled his eyes while Bucky smirked and Maria ignored him. The strangers – there were four of them – all grinned into their glasses.

Natasha shook her head exasperatedly. "Clint, this is Dugan, Morita, Angie, and Gabe." Each person nodded as they were introduced, and Dugan raised his glass in greeting. Clint jerked a hand in response, and then turned back to Natasha expectantly. Natasha sighed. "Steve," she said by way of explanation.

Clint blinked, startled. "Steve's here?"

"Of course," Tony cut in. "You thought he was headed to the other place or something?"

"Hadn't really thought about it," Clint shrugged, but he was definitely more interested than the casual exterior he portrayed. It had been way too long.

Bucky snorted. "Idiot would never go anywhere else. He'll be here once he and Peggy realize we all left without them."

"Wait…" Clint sat forward, interested. "Peggy. Like, Peggy Carter Peggy?"

"This is heaven, Clint," Natasha shoved him lightly. "It's not like time has any meaning here. And apparently, death cannot stop true love."

"All it can do is delay it for a little while?" Tony snorted into his glass. "Please tell me you have a copy of Princess Bride in the media library. That one's a classic."

Natasha smiled. "We got to that one ages ago, Tony. The irony was not missed by any of us."

Clint chuckled and picked up the glass of beer in front of him. Just a few minutes ago he had been reliving some of the best moments of his life, so he really hadn't had much time to consider the logistics of heaven, but he was definitely looking forward to seeing the super soldier again. He had lived so long with Steve gone, but the memories of him had brought the old feelings of loss to the forefront, and suddenly he really needed to see the man.

"You know you really could have waited."

Speak of the devil. Clint spun in his seat to see Steve dropping down into an empty chair next to Tony, a dark haired woman about the same age – not that age had any meaning in heaven, apparently (they all looked permanently frozen in their late twenties/early thirties, which could only be a blessing considering the long list of ailments Clint had thankfully left behind in death) – settling easily on his other side.

"You knew when we were leaving, not our fault you were too wrapped up in each other to notice anything around you," Bucky rolled his eyes and took a sip of his beer.

Steve huffed, but let it go when Peggy threaded her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder. Several of the table's occupants threw fond or amused smiles in their direction, but Steve ignored them in favor of focusing on the beer that had appeared in front of him – courtesy of the nameless bartender who had been serving their group so long now that he had all their favorite drinks memorized.

He took a sip and his eyes automatically lifted up to survey the group, seeing who had joined them today.

And then he nearly choked on the drink – a real feat considering he was dead and couldn't actually choke on anything. "Clint?"

The archer grinned and waved. "Took you long enough."

Steve set his drink down and stood up quickly. Clint followed, and the two embraced. Clint hoped his hug didn't look as needy as it felt, but it had been a really long time since he had seen the man. Sure he had missed Tony, Pepper, Bucky, and Maria, but it had been decades since he and the super soldier had spoken.

And he hadn't ever even gotten a chance to say goodbye.

"You're an idiot," he whispered softly, still maintaining the firm embrace.

He felt more than saw Steve's smile. He could tell that the man understood Clint's feelings just fine by the way his hug got just a little bit tighter.

When they pulled apart a long moment later – just shy of the hug becoming awkward – Clint was embarrassed to realize that he was on the verge of crying.

Steve smiled wryly. "If it makes you feel any better, Bucky punched me?"

Clint snorted. "It kind of does," he admitted, amused.

Tony looked up at that. "What is it with you people and that kind of greeting?" he asked curiously. "You and my dad, you and Bucky, you do know there are other ways to greet people, right?"

Steve shrugged as he sat back down. Clint followed his movement, returning to his seat between Tony and Natasha and throwing his old partner a questioning look.

"It's a long story," she murmured, the only one paying attention to their conversation who had actually witnessed the altercation so many years earlier. On the other side of the table, the Commandoes and Angie – one of Peggy's friends from her SHIELD days – had disappeared into their own conversation once they had greeted Steve and Peggy (something about the amount of gas you would need to drive a car to the moon, if Clint actually heard what he thought he had). He raised an eyebrow in Natasha's direction, and on her eye roll, decided he was better off not knowing.

It was nice though. Comforting. Even if he had just met half the table a few minutes ago, it was amazing to be surrounded by his friends once more. Sure, there were people missing. He doubted they'd ever see Thor up here – and that brought an offhanded thought on where Asgardians went when they died, if there was a separate heaven for them or if they had their own floor up here? Bruce was still alive and kicking last time he had checked, and of course Laura was no doubt burying herself in spending time with the grandkids and planning exactly what kind of retribution she'd seek when she got up here herself, for him dying on her like that. He missed his kids. He missed his grandkids. All the friends that had become like family over the decades. Some of them, if he was lucky, he may eventually meet again someday – if they woke up from the memories. Natasha had made it clear that that wasn't the norm. Apparently, they were all anomalies. Cool.

His heart thudded painfully at the thought that even after Laura died he may never see her again, but he had to hold onto the belief that she, like the rest of them, wouldn't be swayed by the collection of 'greatest hits' heaven threw at her. After all, how could a mere memory of him ever compare to the awesomeness that was the real thing?

A sharp elbow impacted his ribs, and even though he was dead and shouldn't feel pain, Clint still winced. He glanced over and raised an eyebrow at Natasha.

The former superhero retracted her arm and gave him a look that told him quite clearly that she knew exactly what he had been thinking.

Even with the phantom pain in his ribs, Clint couldn't stop his grin. He had missed his partner.

And then Steve looked over at the two of them, a soft smile on his face as he watched them interact, and Clint finally felt like his world was coming together.

He had lived a good, long life, full of friends, family, and happy moments. There had been pain too, of course – losing Natasha and Steve so close to each other and with so little warning had been hard. Explaining to his kids why Uncle Steve and Auntie Nat were never going to come around again had been even harder.

But they had survived. It hadn't always been easy, but they had _lived_. And in those moments when Clint felt like the loss was overwhelming and he didn't know how to go on, he had consoled himself with thinking of Morgan and Nate. His grandkids. Tony, alive and happily sharing grandfather duties. It was everything Steve had wanted, even if he couldn't be around to see it happen.

It seemed too good to be true that he could have so many good things, die, and then finally be reunited with the final two members of his family.

But there didn't seem to be a catch here, and Clint wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

(Ok, that was a total lie, he was definitely someone who looked a gift horse in the mouth and then probably took it apart piece by piece to find whatever hidden catches the giver had tried to slip passed him. And even if his search came up empty, he probably wouldn't believe it. But god damn it this was heaven and Clint might not be religious but heaven couldn't be so cruel as to give him two of the most important people in his life back only to take them away again, right?)

_Hopefully I was able to satisfactorily explore Clint and Steve's relationship, and did justice to Clint and Nat's reunion.. Please review!_


End file.
